


Make Some Noise (Danger Days fanfic)

by DeathNBlackGlitter



Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), My Chemical Romance
Genre: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, Pre-Killjoys (Danger Days)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 00:32:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 24,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17294261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeathNBlackGlitter/pseuds/DeathNBlackGlitter
Summary: Poison: We are the saviors of the Zones, the Fabulous Four!!Ghoul: It's a working title.Kobra: Shut up Ghoul we're on a heist.Jet: God you guys are idiots.The fleshed out story of the Fabulous Four and Mcr's Dangerverse. (With the help of Tumblr headcannons)This story is being made to celebrate the year of the Killjoys.Just to clear The characters are only Very loosely based on the real people and I would like you to see them as their Danger days counterparts.





	1. Chapter 1

Welcome to the Zones.

 

This is California 2019. The desolate wasteland of what once was. 

In the centre of this place is Battery city, run by Better Living Industries, the ones who saved us from the Fires of 2012 and emerged victorious in the two year long Analog wars, the freedom fighters were crushed in their efforts.

Many of the freedom fighters became Draculoids with the notable exception of Cherri Cola, Dr. Death Defying, who came back from death after making a deal with the Phoenix Witch. And the leader of them all, a woman, she had a son born before the wars. Another child was on its way, a girl. The one who will save us all.

Outside Battery city lie the Zones, a vast desert that goes on for miles. The satellites of the city give way to the stars and the skies fill with radio static.

The emptiness may start to get to you when you're out of Zone 3, where very few people wonder.

Zone 6 and beyond are mysterious in themselves. No one has been outside Zone 6. Nobody can afford to. Supplies and populations may be within a few miles or it maybe just vast expanses of empty desert with no protection from the depleting ozone layer. 

The Zones are the home of the Killjoys, Children born of violence and rock and roll. Vowing to one day end the regime of Bl/Ind. 

The Girl will make it to the zones guided by the leaders of the Killjoys, known as the Fabulous Four. They will free Battery city and open it to the Zones.


	2. Jet Star

"Ray!" The voice called out. He turned. His mother and aunt Valerie stood in his bedroom doorway.  
"What is it?" Hoping to not have to leave the radio he was working on.  
"We have family over, you need to leave your cave for a bit." Ray gestured to the large window letting in bright beams of sunlight that would highlight every speck of dust floating around.  
"Ray." His mother said again, this time with a warning tone. He sighed then got up off his chair and forced a smile at aunt Valerie before making his way to the living room.

Ray's family sat around the living room of their dusty Neutral statehouse. His family lived in a small town in Zone 1,  twelve miles away from the Lobby of Battery city. Luckily for the most part Bl/Ind left them alone. 

"Hello uncle Henry." Ray greeted to the man seated on the sofa opposite to him.  
"Good day my boy." Henry replied in the same way as he had since Ray was four when they first met. 

His mother and aunt joined them soon after. Ray sighed as he knew what was coming next.  
"Raymond!" Exclaimed his aunt.  
"Hello aunt Valerie." Ray mumbled.

"Speak up Ray your aunt is a bit deaf." He heard his father say as Ray dreaded what was next.  
"So when are you cutting this mop of yours?" His aunt picked up a lock of his curly hair.  
"Haven't thought about that yet aunt Valerie." His aunt raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"Why don't you share what you've been making Ra-Raymond?" He looked at his father then flatly replied.  
"I'm building a radio. Nothing special or anything you should take interest in."

Aunt Valerie wrinkled her nose.  
"Radio? Radios are for those rebellious kids who run around the Zones killing people and listening to rock music. You have a perfectly fine television for your news." 

"They're called Killjoys aunt Valerie. And all that's on TV is BLI propaganda at least the radio has interesting stuff." 

She shook her head.  
"My nephew is not turning out a respectable young man Sally." Aunt Valerie told her sister. "Maybe if he cut his hair and washed those doodles off your arms he'd be getting somewhere. I did expect better from you Raymond. I really did."

"Those 'doodles' are spiders I saw today that I needed to document but I didn't get the chance to."  
"That's probably because they're radioactive." His mother quipped.

"You know what I've had enough." Ray got up from his seat. "And no aunt Valerie, I'm not cutting my hair." He left the staring eyes and went back to his room.

A fiery blaze woke him. Then the wave of heat. Ray snapped his eyes open, around him huge flames licked up the house, his home.  
He began to run toward his family when another explosion hit the house, forcing him backwards. 

When he came to his senses he turned his head to the radio lying next to him. Over the sounds of fire, his own breathing and the faint screams of terror and pain in the distance, the realization hit him that, his family was dead. He watched the burning crater where he once lived. 

The survival instincts kicked in, Ray dragged himself up off the ground. Taking his radio and running out to the desert, running so fast he put out the flames on his clothes.

Just before dawn he reached a sign reading 'Route Guano turn off 3 miles' and a sign below saying  
'Zone 3. Warning! Some BLI tech may not correctly operate beyond this point'  
Stepping onto paved road felt like a heaven after hours of getting sand in his shoes. 

By noon the sun had reached peak intensity making it painful to look at anything with a reflective surface. Ray held his radio tight to his chest and slowly walked up the road.

Big shiny yellow letters spelling 'Diner' came into his view. Ray breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally some shade." He blurted out. Almost running till he reached the door. 

He sat down leaning on the door. All was well and good until the door opened. Ray did nothing to stop himself from falling onto the concrete floor. He didn't mind that much. It felt really good on his face. 

Then the worst pain in the world came on him as something caught his hair and fell to the ground behind him.  
"Oh my god mY FUCKING HAIR!!" He yelled. The person who caught on his hair looked at the complete stranger in the doorway and screamed too.  
"CHERRI COLA I'M STUCK!!" 

Another guy came in the room.  
"Help." The guy stuck to him whimpered.  
"Jesus can you keep it down you don't want to send a Dracu-Oh my god." He looked down at the complete idiot who somehow managed to get their rollerskate wheel stuck in the hair of a sunstroked stranger with a radio who rolled up out of nowhere.

The next ten minutes were lots of hair detangling and multiple comments of ''Show Pony you're a complete idiot'' and ''jeez man you've got thick hair"

After the hair was successfully detangled the rollerskate scooted away, Ray however stayed lying on the floor clutching his radio.  
"You can get up now." The guy he thought was Cherri said.  
"It's nice down here." He replied. It earned a sigh from Cherri before he hauled Ray off the floor. He held him by the shoulders and firmly told him. "You've got sunstroke mate."  
Ray laughed slightly.  
"That would explain things." He said before lurching out of Cherri's grasp and puking in the doorway.  
"Pleasant." Remarked the guy who was probably Show Pony. Ray pulled the finger at them while simultaneously chucking up his guts. 

"You must've had a rough day."  
"You think!?" Ray replied, wiping his mouth.  
"Come inside you're a complete wreck." Cherri led him into the diner and motioned toward the sofa in the corner. Ray sat and nearly got hit by the bucket Show Pony through to him.

"So anyway who are you?" Cherri asked.  
"I'm Ray Toro. I'm from Neutral settlement 4, in Zone 1." He replied. Show Pony looked worried.  
"BLI Scarecrows bombed that town last night." They swallowed nervously "It's a miracle you survived," They paused. "How?"  
"I got blasted out of my house and ran out into the desert." Ray replied. He soon remembered. "How could I have forgotten,"  
"What?"  
"My family is dead. They were killed in the explosion."  
Cherri, not knowing what to say just patted him on the shoulder and whispered a sorry.

Cherri and Show Pony fixed his burns and wounds while he sat there not doing much staring into space. He continued that for the next three days.  

The next morning he got up and hobbled over to the other room. Cherri was in there attempting to use out of date coffee powder.  
"Cherri."  
"Cherri Cola is my full name, Cherri is fine if you must. Anyway what do you want?" He took a sip of his drink. "Ugh that's shit." He exclaimed.  
"Don't think that's drinkable anymore." Ray noted.  
"What do you want?" Cherri repeated.  
"I want to join the fight against BLI."  
"Ok you do know that doing that will put your life at risk?"  
"Yes. I know that."  
"Very well then. What do we call you? Ray Toro just won't cut it in the Zones." Cherri stirred his undrinkable coffee around. "Show Pony! This Jet needs some help."  
Show Pony came scooting in. "What does Star Boy want this time?"  
"He's joining the fight against BLI." Show Pony's eyes lit up. They grabbed Ray and raced out of the room.

"Careful I'm not wearing rollerskates remember!" 

The storage cupboard was full of clothes and weird objects. Show Pony pranced around the room. "So do you have a name yet or do I keep calling you Star Boy?"  
"Jet Star." He decided. "My name is Jet Star." Show Pony nodded.  
"Go through everything and take what you want. Your clothes aren't going to last much longer." He looked at his scorched grey tshirt and agreed. 

He came back to the living room with a pile of new clothes, naturally black.  
"Come on man you're a Killjoy. You have literally a hundered other colours to choose from."  
"I'm fine with the black."  
"Ok fine, but at least decorate your jacket." Show Pony handed him a box of random bits of fabric and patches.  
He dig around for a while and found red and yellow patches for the jacket. He then pulled out a larger piece of fabric.  
"Wow it's an old American flag."  
Show Pony came over. "Cool."  
"It just needs something else." He found some black paint and drew the spider he found onto the flag before pinning it on the back of his jacket.

"While we have the paint out you can decorate your ray gun." Show Pony looked over at Jet who was painting a space helmet with a bunch of bandannas strewn everywhere.  
"A gun?"  
"Yep you actually have enemies now."  
He took the gun gingerly.  
"I'm not that good at shooting." Jet admitted.  
"You'll learn." 

Later Cherri Cola came back with some food. He looked around the room and back to Jet Star.  
"Not bad. I like your ray gun." He said. Jet smiled. He took the mask off his jacket and placed it over his eyes.  
"Now you look like a Killjoy." Show Pony stated.


	3. Party Poison

Gerard Way sat at his desk listening to the tutor droid teach history. Well 'teach history' was an overstatement, it was all just propaganda being told through a heartless robotic voicebox. 

Gerard knew this because for almost a year he stopped taking his meds, every citizen of Battery city was prescribed mind altering drugs at age three. They numbed down all emotions and even completely blocked negative emotions, but if you were well behaved you were allowed to experience minor positive emotions. But not Gerard, he had been flushing the drugs down the toilet to prevent them being found by waste collection droids. So far he was in the clear.  
Only one person knew this secret, his brother Mikey.

"Gee wait up." His 16 year old brother Mikey jogged across the school courtyard.  
"Hey." Gee said. "Who won today's detention count?"  
Mikey laughed and pulled out his detention slips.  
"Well, I got three for talking without permission, five for questioning the learning material and two for refusing to do PE since some idiot wanted to play Dracs and Killjoys."  
"What seriously? The game we played when we were like, seven?"  
"Yep." Mikey replied. "What were your detentions for?"  
"Six for speaking out of turn, three for messy uniform and one for this." Gerard took out a lock of his messy hair that was bright red.  
"Gee!" Mikey almost shrieked. "Where did you get the dye?"  
"Bought it from Downing lane for 50 Carbons." Mikey's eyebrows raised.  
"That's in the Lobby." He exclaimed. "That's very illegal."  
"I went out last night. No one caught me."  
"I can't believe you. 10 detentions each. What's the tie breaker?"  
"I'm three years older so I win." Gerard stated.  
"How does that work?"  
"It just does."  
"Doesn't make sense."  
"Yes it does."

Gee and Mikey walked out of the elevator onto their apartment balcony.

"Look the building across the street is gone." Gee pointed.  
"So it is." Mikey replied, uninterested.  
"Wow you can see the desert from here."  
"Oh really?" He went over to the railing. Gee climbed onto the first rung, despite being the older child he was the shortest. Mikey just stood on his tiptoes.  
"I'm going out there one day." Gee breathed. "I can't stand it here."  
Mikey frowned.  
"Why? It's not like we're dying."  
Gerard frowned back.  
"Mikey think about it, no one has any free will."  
"What do you mean?"  
"They fill our heads with drugs and shit on the news about all their supposed good deeds. No one can get in or out, come on the popular vacation spot is an 10 miles away. Nobody can ever feel sad, or angry or scared, not even joy sometimes."  
Mikey shook his head.  
"You're only saying that because you're off the meds."  
"I can see what BLI are really doing. They keep us under control with the drugs. Maybe if you stopped taking them you would see the reality." 

"So what you'd just leave me here? Leave our parents?"  
"No." Gerard shook his head. "You can come with me. We'll escape together." He stepped off the railing.  
"What about mum and dad?" 

"Mikey they're going to kick us out as soon as it's legal. I'll be on the streets by the end of the month. I overheard them one night"  
Mikey was silent for a long time.  
"You can't leave Gee, I need you to keep me sane." Tears were forming in the corners of his eyes. "Please."  
Gerard shook his head. "I can't, sorry. What help am I if I can't stay sane myself?"  
Without another word Mikey stood up and walked inside, leaving Gee on the balcony alone, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Six days.

Mikey and Gerard hadn't spoken in six days. They walked home alone, didn't compare punishments or try to out do each other at the stupidest things. Dinner was awkward, usually filled with jokes and their parents asking how their days were. By the third day they'd given up that.

Gerard walked upstairs to he and Mikey's bedrooms on the third landing.  
Mikey walked out out of the bathroom with his favourite red blanket around his shoulders. He and Gerard made eye contact.  
"Mikey." He began. Mikey stared back with sad eyes before turning into his room. Gee sighed and went to his. 

In his room the wall behind his bed had a black sheet covering a half done mural made from bits of colourful and metallic trash he found. He covered it up when people were around though as creativity was a massive faux part in Battery city. He placed the sheet back in his place.

Rummaging through his bedside draws he found some paper to write a goodbye note for Mikey.  
Gerard dimmed the lights until the glow in the dark stars he never took off his ceiling started glowing. 

He was still writing at 2.00am when the door to the balcony was forced open.

"Mr. Way are you aware that you're up past regulation hours?" An armed officer stepped into his room and held up an ID with 'Niall B Garrison. Scarecrow unit 8.'  
"Um." Gerard looked around him. The small window in the corner was left uncovered. He almost slapped himself for forgetting. 

Gee looked for something to protect himself with. He grabbed his baseball bat and swung a hit. He caught it with one hand. ''Damn'' Gee cursed under his breath.

"Violence, anger, fear. You're off your medication." Gerard said nothing and tried to wrestle the bat out of his grip.

"You've been seen out at night making illegal trades in the Lobby. Your time in Battery city is done." The Scarecrow stated, reaching for his taser and hitting Gerard full in the chest. The electricity coursed through his body. He tried to scream but found by that point he couldn't move. The Scarecrow chucked him over his shoulder and climbed down the emergency staircase off the balcony.

Once down on the street Gerard was thrown into the back of a truck. He heard the doors close and the engine start. Then the truck made a sharp turn and he slid over the slippery metal floor into the wall. Barely able to talk his attempt to scream sounded more like a moan. The truck straightened up again and he went sliding face first into the other wall. Blood gushed out of his nose.

Over an hour and many wall collisions later Gerard found himself able to move again, covered in blood and dirt off the floor he attempted to sit, just as the truck made a sudden brake and Gee went flying into the door. Feet first this time. The force of him hitting the door cracked the door bolts and it swung open. He waited for the car to make a complete stop and then bolted as fast as his legs could run into the Dead Pegasus gas station. 

He stopped in the chip aisle for a breath and then ran into the bathroom. Reaching for the small broken screwdriver he always kept in his pocket Gerard cracked open the door to the maintenance shaft. He climbed inside and replaced the door then crawled along until the tunnel grew and he could stand properly.

At the first crossroads he followed the sign towards the Lobby and went along until he found another sign stating 'End of maintenance shaft.' Moving his eyes upwards he spied the other door above him. 

The door came open. Gee hoisted himself up out of the shaft. Nearly getting hit by a car as he realized it opened into a busy street.  
"Shit!" He yelled rolling to the curb as a bus trundled past seconds later. 

Catching his breath he stood up. The tall buildings towered over the Lobby's inner wall. Piles of metallic trash sat around the road sides and the odd person walked in and out of a building. Gee scaled the outer wall. A giant, 18 foot high, electric fence.

Gerard spotted the gate and made a sprint towards it.  
High pitched ray gun fire started piercing the night air and leaving scorch marks on the concrete. Gerard ducked down to avoid being hit.

A hand pulled him into an alcove in the wall, away from where the now scorched concrete was.  
A guy with messy dark blonde hair stood beside him. Beckoning him to stand they ran towards a car, only for the engine to explode seconds later. He took Gee's arm and ran to the car yard where they climbed into the nearest car, a TransAm. The engine switched on.

"So when that gate opens, I'm going to accelerate and slam through the barricade as one of the BLI trucks goes through." The guy said. Gee nodded.

When the gate open he slammed the pedals and the car lurched forward and smashed through the gate at 120 miles per hour.

Gee looked behind him. "They're still chasing us."  
"We'll give him the slip on the next turn off." He assured him. Sure enough a small dirt road appeared to their right. The car veered off and braked sharply behind a large boulder. The BLI truck hurtled past.

"Right get into the drivers seat." The guy said.  
"Ok," Gerard climbed across to the drivers seat.  
"Thanks man. We have some time so er, introductions. I'm Cherri Cola."  
"I'm Gerard. People sometimes call me Gee."  
"I know. You're on the Battery city wanted list. For refusing BLI meds."  
"Not what they originally blamed me for. They only said that when I attempted to hit the guy with a baseball bat." Cherri Cola almost laughed. "Not many people have done that and lived."  
"Guess not." 

Cherri fired up a radar. "Turn on the engine. When I say, floor it." Gee nodded. The radar machine beeped every second.  
"Ok we're clear. Go now!" He floored the accelerator and  sped off.  
"Right turn back onto the road." 

Once back on the highway the car slowed down and turned off the headlines so they weren't seen. They continued like this for another hour until they  turned off again. Gerard stopped the car in front of a building with 'Diner' on the roof.

The door creaked as it opened. A bunch of random people lay around the place. Cherri tapped the guy on the sofa. "You're on watch." He whispered.  
"You take the sofa, try get some sleep." Gerard flopped onto the sofa and pulled up the blanket, falling asleep relatively quickly. 

Someone shook him slightly.  
"Mikey I don't wanna go to school today, just tell the principal I'm dead."  
"It's not Mikey whoever they are." An unfamiliar voice said. Gerard woke with a start.  
"Aaaugh! Who are you?"  
"Jet Star." He replied.  
"I'm Gee. Do you need anything?"  
"Neither of us have anything to do today. Except for painting random shit."  
"Just let me get rid of the blood on my face first?"

"I'm done." Gee brought the radio to Jet. He had painted the front with a couple of different colours with the word 'Boom' drawn on it.  
"Wow you are a really good artist." Jet was impressed.  
"Thanks. First time anyone apart from my brother has applauded me for it."  
"Ha. Nice jacket by the way. "  
"Thanks, I figured it looked cool." Gee adjusted his navy blue Dead Pegasus jacket with a few patches here and there. "There is so much cool shit in your storage cupboard. I even found this." He held up a blue catlike head.  
"A Mousekat head." Jet raised an eyebrow, amused.  
"Yep. I even found a smaller one inside it. We can put it on the rearview mirror." Gee handed him the mini Mousekat. "The car looks great by the way."  
"Thanks." 

"You know what Jet, I've been thinking."  
"About what?" Jet asked while painting the side of the car.  
"I'm going to stay here."  
"So you're a Killjoy now?"  
"Yeah I guess."  
"Have you found a name?" Jet asked.  
"I thought about that. Mikey could call me Poison when I was annoying. So I decided on Party Poison."  
Jet looked up from the car and smirked.  
"That's a really cheesy story bro."  
"Well. I mean, I like yellow so?" He cheekily replied.  
"Leave my presence." Jet joked.  
"Fine. I need to find Show Pony anyway." He walked back inside.

"Show Pony?" Party Poison called.  
"Yeah?" They yelled back.  
"I need some hair dye."  
"What colour?"  
"Red."


	4. Fun Ghoul and Kobra Kid

Note: this is quite a long chapter. Feel free to read it in bits.

Mikey's alarm went off. 6.30am. With it being a Monday he decided he probably should wake Gerard, despite still being furious at him he knew Gee didn't take any sleep regulator drugs anymore meaning he would sleep at the strangest times, often getting into trouble for it.

"Gee?" Mikey knocked on his bedroom door. "Gee you awake?" He opened the door. Empty. He began to panic. Shut the door and leaned against the wall. Sitting in the hallway until he calmed himself down and went downstairs.

Three flights of stairs later he reached the kitchen where his mom was packing her bag.  
"Where's Gerard?" He asked. Slightly scared.  
His mom looked up calmly. "Oh he left last night."  
"Without telling me!?" Mikey started crying. "He wouldn't do that." 

His mother came over to him.  
"He had to leave very quickly."  
"Why did he have to go?"  
"He was too much trouble. If we kept him round longer Better Living Industries may have found him and punished all of us."  
She went to hug him. Mikey stood there not hugging back. She let go.  
"Hey I know this is a stressful time for you so you can stay home today." He nodded.  
"And I can see your medication is wearing off Mikey, remember to take your pills."  
"I will." He replied.

Heading back upstairs, Mikey went into the bathroom to get his pills. Pouring some out from each bottle. He held them in his palm, hesitating.  
'What would be the harm in not taking them?' He thought. 'Gee was fine.'  
Mikey put all the pill bottles back in the cupboard and turned away from it.  
'Just for today, I won't take these' he told himself, he walked over to toilet and flushed them down the bend.

Mikey opened the door again to Gerard's room. Things seemed out of place. The blinds were still shut and the lights were dim enough to see the ceiling stars. He didn't think much of that as Gee had probably left in a hurry.  
Gee's old baseball bat lay on the floor completely scorched. He stared, disturbed for a while. Looking around he also found some pieces of paper and a pen lying on his bed. Mikey picked it up and read the note.

'First things first, I just want to say I'm sorry. I hate to leave you, being your brother and all. I don't know exactly when I'll go after writing this. Sooner or later I'll have to. 

I didn't want to tell you this. But I think they're after me, the Scarecrows I mean. In homeroom today on of the BLI operatives came to test people. I hid in the bathroom most of the day. Got four extra detentions for it. So I win. 

They're after me Mikey. Being the older one I don't like to admit this, but I'm scared.  
"If you're mad at me for going, please know that while I am sorry, you could've come with me. Raid my closet if it makes you feel better.

Hate to say this bu-' The letter ended with a sharp random pen mark. Almost like the pen had been spooked by something.

Mikey's hand caught on the black sheet covering the wall, it landed on his face which caused him to trip over the side table and land on the metal leg of the bed which electrocuted him slightly. He landed on the floor with a muffled squeak. Mikey fought the sheet off him hitting his elbows and knees on everything.  
"Ow." He moaned, throwing the sheet on the floor and standing up. "Wow." He saw the wall.

Gerard had nailed on a while array of scraps of shiny metal things he found. Along the top he had arranged some bits of broken CDs to say 'Art is the Weapon.' With some words along the bottom saying 'Make Some Noise'  
Mikey smiled. He had always admired Gee's art, he treated it like a form of rebellion. This was on a whole other level. In the middle of the wall he had made a huge hand out of tin can lids pulling the finger.

Mikey decided to hunt through Gee's closet, seeing as he had permission to.  
At first glance it was just full of black pants and white school shirts. As well as a grey Mousekat tshirt.  
Underneath the clothes in the corner sat a couple of boxes. Mikey dragged them out. In the top was an off yellow singlet with black stripes on it. Below that was a red leather jacket with a tag reading 'Happy 16th Mikey.' His eyes lit up. After putting on the shirt and jacket, he slid the box back into the wardrobe and put Gerard's room back together placing the sheet over the wall, and taking the note he wrote.

Mikey went back to his own room. Took the photo of with Gee out of the frame, and put it in his pocket.

"You know what?" He told himself. "Why don't you go out? Take the risk."  
He found an oversized black hoodie and put it on over the top so people wouldn't see the jacket. He headed to the elevator and set it to ground floor.

______________________________________

"Hey! Get back here!" The guard yelled. Chasing him through the hall or 'quarters' as they called them, though gilded cell or even cage was a better name for the sleeping places of the teenagers held there. All of them looking through the little gaps in the doors cheering on the chase in the hall.  
"Run Frankie!"  
"Damn you're crazy dude!"  
"You're gonna die emo!"  
"You won't make it you're too short!"  
These phrases were yelled for the guy with messy black hair that hadn't been cut in over a year and hazel eyes filled with sprite who dashed away at great pace chased by a guard, or 'floor manager,'as they would call it.

"I'm 5'6 asshole!" He yelled back before reaching the end of the corridor.

The guard nearly grabbed him before he dove into the elevator.  
"You're gonna regret this Frank Iero!" He yelled. Frank snarkily grinned back as the doors closed and the elevator lowered.

The elevator beeped when it reached the ground floor. Frank grabbed the fire extinguisher as a weapon, stabbed it with the knife kept in the elevator for cutting through the doors, and throwing into the reception.  
Then, he made a run for it. The doors slid open and he ran out to the city, followed by a team of furious authority members.  
He turned into a car yard. Everyone all ran past him.

Frank was clear. He lay underneath car waiting for the people chasing him to lose the scent. He could hardly believe it. He'd made it into the city.  
The six years spent in the Juvie halls was behind him. No longer a Ritalin Rat. No longer stuck in the Juvie halls. 

Rolling out from under the car, Frank ran into an alley to ponder his final escape, hiding behind a dumpster. Leaning his head against the wall as he started feeling nauseous again.  
"Fuck not again." He closed his eyes.  

He lay on the ground. A group of people stood around him. One knelt down beside him.  
"Frank?" He shook him slightly. "Frankie it's Kai. Can you hear me?"  
He turned his head, everything was still foggy. Trying his very hardest to focus on Kai.  
"You overdosed again Frankie." He told him, carrying him in his arms back inside. "Hold on." 

Frank's eyes snapped open. He was still behind the dumpster.  
Most of the nausea had passed. He slowly poked his head up. The street was still empty, he sighed in relief. It seemed as if not much more than ten minutes had passed. No one had seen him.

He found a black coat and decided it covered his yellow sleeves and tattoos sufficiently. Frank got a lot of his tattoos from his time in a freedom fighter gang before he was in Juvie. Over the years he and his friends had covered him from neck to toes in ink.

He went to the busier streets as he got further away from the correctional facility complex in the centre of the city.

Battery city wasn't the usual image of a city, full of diversity and culture with the smell of nice food everywhere you went. It was cold and harsh. People walked past in bland clothing, everything regulation, uniform, conforming to the corporate machine. 

He saw many signs asking if he'd smiled for BLI today. He snorted. Asking if he had remembered to take his meds. "Fuck you." He mouthed at the sign. The monochromatic smiley face company logo smiled back. Frank glared.

"On today's wanted list." The billboard blared. "Juvie hall escapist Frank Iero."  
"Shit I'd better run" he said under his breath making his way to the backstreets.

______________________________________

Once out into the streets Mikey took in the open space with businessmen in military grey power walking in organized lines to their important meetings. On the front of the skyscraper was a billboard with an actor in a white coat advertising drugs to the masses.

''We have developed a new medication to bring you twelve hours of joyful bliss, Negolagen blocks the harmful neurotransmitters sending you negative emotions. Enjoy your day with a postive mindset.  
Talk with your doctor to see if Negolagen is right for you.  
Sponsered by Better Living Industries, The Aftermath is Secondary."

The advertisement faded off to an Asian woman with a blunt hairdo seated on the screen. Mikey stopped in his tracks.

"Good morning citizens of Battery city. I am the Madam Director. Bringing you the city's wanted."  
An image on the screen showed an image of a guy with longish black hair who was obviously attempting to hide a smirk in his mugshot. Next up a guy with messy, dirty blonde haired guy in his mid thirties. Then a photo of Gerard appeared.  
"On today's wanted list, Juvie hall escapist Frank Iero, unknown Zone runner and rebellious 19 year old school boy Gerard Way-"  
Mikey stopped watching and walked away. 

He kept going until he reached an empty side street, an increasingly numb feeling grew inside him, followed by a wave of dizziness. Mikey sat himself down and rested against the side of a building with his head between his knees, waiting for it to stop.  
'This must be withdrawal from the drugs' he thought, almost regretting his decisions of the morning. 'How did you do this Gerard?'  
The dizziness got worse, Mikey leaned over and threw up in the gutter. A few times over.

He felt someone patting his back.  
"I get it. Don't worry, you'll feel better in an hour or so." Mikey turned to see guy with black hair and too big overcoat standing beside him.  
"What?"  
"You're having withdrawals from the drugs. I know what that feels like trust me."  
Mikey turned and sat down.  
"You know this because?"  
"I was on Draculoid dose meds for almost six years. It was three days of hell before they found out and doubled the amount of pills."  
He sat there, surprised.  
"You've seen a Drac?"  
"Yep. Heaps of times. Have you?"  
"No, never. Who are you anyway?"  
"I'm Frank, but don't get too attached to that name. I'm gonna be a Killjoy."  
"You're the second person who's told me that."

Mikey finally felt stable enough to stand.  
"I'd better go home." He said. Looking around. "Don't suppose you know where to go?"  
"One. I don't know where you live. Two. I've been in Juvie for six years so steady on." Frank replied.  
Mikey rolled his eyes.  
"What about the Central Business District. Do you know where that is."  
Frank pointed to his left. "Thanks."

"By the way, I never got your name."  
Frank called before Mikey turned off the street.  
"It's Mikey." He called back..

The smoke plumed from around the corner. "Oh my god." He gasped before legging it back home.  
The whole block of apartments lay in a fiery blaze. Mikey stood across the road. He saw his parent's car. They'd come back to check on him. He bit his lip.

Masked Scarecrows patrolled the street, ray guns in hand. Mikey ducked behind a slab of concrete. 

"Mr. and Mrs. Way?" One of the Scarecrows asked.  
"Draculization successful. If you see their sons don't hesitate to shoot when necessary."  
Mikey didn't cry or scream or anything like that, he just sat there, completly shellshocked.

"Mikey." Someone whispered. He jumped.  
"Oh. Frank. It's just you."  
He sat beside him.  
"Was that your house?" Mikey nodded in response.  
"I'm sorry."  
They sat together in silence.

"Mikey. We have to leave."  
"No. I-I can't."  
"There's nothing left for us here." Frank tried to reason with him. "Our families are gone, the government is after our heads and 20 feet away there is an unguarded hole in the wall leading straight to the desert. Where else are we supposed to go?" He looked at Mikey. "Please. It may be our one chance."  
Mikey took a long deep breath and stood alongside Frank. "I'm ready." He whispered. 

Frank counted down from three and they sprinted over the rubble out of the city.

Surprisingly no one followed them out. Still, they ran until they physically couldn't anymore.

Halfway up a huge sand dune, Frank stopped.  
"One last look." He said. "Then we leave it all behind." Him and Mikey turned and looked back at Battery city, now hazy blur in the desert heat waves.  
"It looks so small from here." Mikey breathed. 

Frank took off his coat. "It's too hot for this."  
Mikey followed pulling off his hoodie and leaving it on the sand dune with Frank's.

"So. Did you take anything with you?" Frank asked.  
"Just this." He handed him the photo. "It's Gee and I at the March carnival last year." He explained. "I just hope he's ok." Frank sympathetically patted him on the back.

"I only have this." He took a small device out of his pocket.  
"Oh cool it's an old school mp3 player."  
"Yeah, the newer ones don't run banned music."  
"You mean you got some illegal hits?"  
"Yup. Well, only one song, the files are hard to come by."  
Mikey shrugged.  
"Nevemind let's hear it." 

Frank pressed the play button, a few seconds later some distorted guitar and bass notes played out.  
'I'm not sure what they said.  
But if it's true I'll bet.  
Just one more thing I'll regret." 

Frank started singing along to it.  
"I hate my weaknesses.  
They made me who I am." 

Mikey smiled. He hadn't heard singing since Gerard was banned from it. And Frank was good.

"Yeah, it's cool, I'll be ok.  
I felt your pain wash over me.  
Dry your eyes and hide my shakes.  
Hate the look that's on your face."

They reached the road and started walking along the tarmac. 

By the third or fourth replay of the song Mikey was singing along too.

"Yeah, it's cool, I'll be ok.  
I felt your pain wash over me.  
Dry your eyes and hide my shakes.  
Hate the look that's on your face."

"Do you know who made this song?"  
"Nope." Frank replied. "No idea."  
He grinned. "You're a good singer."  
Mikey snorted. "Yeah right. Gee was the singer in my family. Not that he ever got any praise for it."  
"Just take the compliment. You sing well."  
"Ok, thanks." Mikey laughed. "You're even better."  
"Aww. I'm flattered." He cheekily grinned.  
"Wait. Are you fishing for compliments?"  
Frank giggled nervously. "Maybe." He saw Mikey trying to keep a straight face. "Don't kill me."  
"Don't worry smol bean. You're safe. For now." Mikey suppressed a laugh.  
"Hey! I'm 5'6." Frank yelled.  
"And I'm 5'10." He replied.  
"Fuck you."

As the sun set they huddled up under a dead bush. Trying to use Mikey's jacket as a blanket.  
"I kinda wish we kept our coats now." He murmured.  
"Mine probably would've attracted coyotes to be honest." Frank said.  
"Why did you say that?" Mikey was in disbelief. "I will not get any sleep now."  
"Oh well. Hope you're not tasty."  
"Frank!"  
Mikey soon ate his words and fell asleep on Frank's shoulder.

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!"  
Frank woke to Mikey's screaming.  
"Jesus what is it?"  
"There's a snake on my leg." He said in a panicked voice. "Help me."  
Frank picked up a stick and flicked the snake off his leg. It hissed and slithered away. Mikey began to calm down a bit.  
"I fucking hate snakes." He said.  
"I can tell." Frank helped him up and handed him his jacket.  
"Let's go before the sun gets too intense."  
The boys set off again down the route Guano highway.

"Jee not a lot out here." Mikey noted. Taking in the flat empty desert.  
"Not a lot on this road until Zone 3. Its the closest highway to Batt city you see."  
He nodded.  
"Anyway." Frank said. "Now that we're starting over what's going to be your new name?"  
"What?"  
"Well we're gonna become Killjoys together right?"  
"Um, I guess."  
"Exactly. Meaning we have to leave behind who we were in the city."  
"Ok." Mikey replied. "I still don't get it."  
"In Battery city, I was a Ritalin addict. In and out of the streets with most of my friends and family being picked off and killed. I don't wanna be Frank Iero anymore. It's time for you to leave Mikey Way behind too" 

"What's your name then?"  
"I pondered that thought for years, I then decided on," he paused for effect. "Fun Ghoul, he puts the fun in funeral."  
"Ok. The name is great. But the catchphrase is terrible. Scrap it."  
"Bet you couldn't do any better."  
Mikey shook his head. "You're right, I don't have anything."  
"Well my friend, inspired by your little snake encounter earlier I was thinking, 'Kobra Kid' spelt with a K."  
"Ironic since I'm terrified of snakes, but I like it."  
"Great. From now on, Frank and Mikey don't live on." He zipped his lips and through it over his shoulder. Kobra followed.  
"Let's go Ghoul." He said.

 

Dehydration soon got the better of them once noon came around.  
Kobra stopped to catch his breath.  
"Admit Ghoul we're gonna die out here." He panted. "There's been nothing for two days."  
"Listen to me." Ghoul said. "We are not going to die here. Not now."  
"Oh god we're actually gonna die."  
"Shut up we're not dying, I refuse. Maybe take your jacket off."  
"No I'll be fried." Kobra said. "Let's go."

They made about half a mile before Kobra suddenly passed out. Ghoul who was walking behind ran up to him.  
"Shit!" Ghoul tried shaking him slightly but he was out cold.  
"Fuck." He breathed. "Come on." He lifted Kobra off the ground and tried to carry him. He only made it ten yards before he too collapsed into the sand bank.

______________________________________

"Poison." Jet called. "You have tonight's mission." Poison jogged over.  
"Oh yeah what is it?" He asked.  
"There's been some disturbance in Zone 2 just off route Guano. You're taking the car and checking it out."  
"What if it's a Drac?"  
"Dracs don't travel on foot."  
"Ok." Poison grabbed his jacket and bandana. "Can I use the headlights?"  
"No." Jet replied.  
"How am I supposed to see?" Jet chucked him a pair of night vision goggles.  
"Keep them." He said.  
"Thanks!" He hopped into the car and sped off, keeping an eye on the radar.

Half an hour later Poison stopped the car to one side of a sand bank. He held his yellow ray gun at the ready, and walked over. Sure enough two figures lay in the sand. He ran over and nearly slipped down the bank.

Party Poison lifted the dark haired guy into the car. He started getting the second guy up when he saw his face.  
"Mikey!" He checked his pulse, alive. Poison breathed a sigh of relief and drove back to the diner as fast as the car could go.

"Jet! Can you help me out please!" Jet came running out of the diner.  
"Are they-?"  
"No they're still alive. It's my brother. He came." 

______________________________________

Kobra slowly opened his eyes. He saw the pitcher of water next to him, he grabbed it and poured the water down his throat. With about half of the water left and some dripping down his chin, he set the pitcher down and turned to Ghoul, who was still asleep.

He dreaded to open the door afraid of what he might see. Frank kicked open Kai's door. Empty. His room was completely deserted with blood staining the floor. Kai had been killed in cold blood. He collapsed and a scream came out of his mouth.

"Ghoul are you alright?" Kobra looked at him concerned. He slowly sat up.  
"I screamed." He said. Kobra Kid nodded.  
"Drink." He handed Ghoul the pitcher.  
"Are you sure you're ok?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied. "I had a bad dream." 

Poison came in. He saw Kobra and immediately ran over, holding him in a tight embrace.  
"I thought I'd never see you again Mikey." He said.  
"Neither. Oh and I'm Kobra Kid now."  
"I'm Party Poison." He replied. This time it was him shedding the ugly tears.  
"I missed you."


	5. 1 Letterboxes

Hi welcome to the first actual chapter.

 

"Well?" Fun Ghoul stood there in the diner wearing a khaki jacket over his yellow shirt, his face covered by a worn out Frankenstein mask and night vision goggles.

Party Poison and Kobra Kid sat around the coffee table painting a motorbike helmet yellow with red and blue stripes.

"Not bad." Kobra mumbled. "Have you named it yet?"  
"It needs a name?" Ghoul scratched his head. "Uh, the Frankuloid mask I guess." He said. "Poison? What do you think?"  
"You need to strut a bit more when showing off your fashion Ghoul or I can't take you seriously." Poison said. Ghoul flicked his hands around and attempted to strut over to them then taking the mask off his face. "Satisfied?"  
Poison nodded. "You look great." He said. "I painted your ray gun. Hope you like it. Your's is done too Kobra" He chucked them the guns. Kobra's gun was red with white stripes and 'Deluxe' drawn in cursive.

Ghoul looked over his ray gun, it had been painted green with the word 'horror' on the right side.  
"This is fuckin shiny." He exclaimed.  
"It's more matte actually."  
"It's a metaphor Kobra." 

Jet Star came in. "What's up dudes?" He saw Kobra and Poison drying the helmet with broken hairdryers.  
"Um, guys. You know that's a really inefficient way to dry that right?"  
"Really? How's that?" Poison continued running the hairdryer over the helmet.  
"The diner's electric system has low voltage. You can't effectively use a hairdryer."  
"How do you suggest that we do it then?"  
"Just leave it on the roof till we get back." Jet said.  
"Ooh have we got a mission?" Kobra asked.  
"Yeah. Were taking down the last BLI security cameras in Zone 2."  
Ghoul squealed and almost jumped on the spot. He ran into the supply closet and came out with a handful of baseball bats." The others looked on, confused.  
"What."  
"Well if we have an important mission  we may as well make it fun." Ghoul said, throwing a bat at everyone. Poisons confusion slowly turned into a grin. "I bags driving!" He ran out. Kobra grabbed the helmet and followed.  
"Please no." Jet sighed.  
"Whoo!! Fuck yeah!" Ghoul sprinted out after them. Jet rolled his eyes and walked out too. 

Kobra chucked the helmet onto the roof and hopped into the TransAm.  
"Jet get in the car." He said. Jet grumbled but got in the back seat next  to Kobra kid. 

Fun Ghoul stood in his seat swinging a hit at the small metal probes poking out of the sand. Forcing the cameras off the stands as Poison had the car going at 80mph.

"Kobra your turn now." Ghoul pointed to the row of cameras on the other side of the car. He stood and periodically smashed them as they sped past.  
"Jet you wanna go?" He offered the bat. He sighed.  
"Why not." He took the bat, stood up and whacked down a bunch more cameras. He didn't hear the first few times they yelled at him to stop before he had hit more than spy cameras. 

"Jet, stop!" Ghoul shouted before a letterbox flew off its post and hit him square in the face. Jet grimaced and bit his lip.  
"Fuck!!" Ghoul yelled. "Fuck man I'm bleeding everywhere." He winced.  
"Sorry." Jet whispered.

"Pull over." He told Poison. "Pull over!" He punched him on the arm.  
"Ok, ok keep your hair on." He skidded the car into a stop, knocking over another letterbox in the process.  
"Shit!"

Ghoul staggered out onto the ground, leaning over his knees bleeding onto the desert. 

Poison ran out after him. Trying to help get the bleeding under control.  
"Oh God man this is pretty bad." He was panicking slightly. Jet rushed over.  
"Fuck man I'm sorry." He said.  
"Get off." Ghoul mumbled.  
"Seriously? You can be mad at me Ghoul but you're gonna bleed out if you don't let me help." He told him.  
"I said get off me!" He pushed him back.  
"Steady on Ghoul you're being an asshole now." Poison said. "Ow fuck!" He yelled as Ghoul punched him in the face. Poison shoved him over. Then he got shoved back. Repeated over until Jet broke them up.

"Right. Ghoul, get in the back. Poison you're in the passenger seat. I'm driving us home." He said. "Kobra make sure he doesn't commit murder." 

An uncomfortable silence followed them home. Ghoul glared intensely at the floor while Kobra Kid kept a cautious eye on him while finally getting the blood under control. 

Poison stared out the window at the sunset. The bruises from the fight showing up on his face and neck. 

They pulled up to the diner. Almost immediately Ghoul left the car and stormed inside.  
Kobra got up to grab his helmet off the roof. Poison lingered in the car for a bit before he too left. 

Poison stared into the bathroom mirror, his left cheekbone purple and slightly swollen. He stood there trying to clean the dirt off his face when Kobra came in wearing his yellow motorbike helmet. The visor with 'GOOD LUCK' written across it flipped up, revealing his brother's face.  
"Hey." Poison turned towards him.  
Kobra removed the helmet, wrapped his arms around him, Poison hugged back. 

"How did this happen?" Kobra asked, not really expecting an answer.  
"I don't know, crazy shit happens to us."  
Kobra laughed slightly. "That's true."

They both looked towards the door as they heard the screaming. They moved to the bathroom doorway watching Jet and Ghoul come in biting each other's heads off.

"You're being such an asshole right now!" Jet slammed the front door.  
"You're the one that hit me with a letterbox!" Ghoul screamed back.  
"For fucks sake that was an accident!"  
"I could have died!"  
"It was your idea to use the baseball bats in the first place. You're still alive and I apologized, why does this have to be a big deal?"  
"I'm gonna blow your legs off with a landmine." Ghoul scowled.  
"Stop being a brat." Jet said. "Where are you even going to get a landmine anyway?" 

"What the fuck is going on here?" Cherri Cola came into the room. "Ghoul put the ray gun down." He lowered the gun away from Jet and dropped it. As it hit the floor it went off, almost hitting Show Pony as they came through the door. They squeaked and jumped about a foot in the air.  
"The fuck?" They put their ray gun away. "Come on Crash Queens Dr. Death Defying is back. Calm down seriously. Show some respect. " 

A bearded guy with long dark hair came in on an motorized wheelchair.  
"These are some guys we picked up a while ago." Cherri told him.  
"What have you four been up to?" He asked. They mumbled out a variety of different answers.  
"We went on a few missions." Jet offered.  
"We have a car." Said Poison.  
"I can shoot things." Ghoul stated.  
"I fixed one of your VendaHacks." Kobra mumbled.  
Dr. Death Defying nodded.  
"I'll grab us all some food." Cherri said. Going off to the kitchen.

They all sat around the diner eating cans of Power Pup. Poison sat next to Show Pony and Kobra Kid on the kitchen island, Jet Star and Fun Ghoul sat on opposite ends of the sofa with Cherri in between them so they didn't attack each other. 

"Bad news I'm afraid." Said Dr. Death. "Almost all of the Neutral towns in Zone 1 have been bombed to the ground." Jet looked at his shoes, biting his lip. Cherri patted him on the back sympathetically.  
"BLI is after something." He continued.  
"They must be paranoid about it if they're going around destroying Neutrals." Show Pony murmured.  
"Do you think it's her?" Cherri asked.  
"Maybe." Dr. Death said. "Maybe."


	6. 2  Raves and Waveheads

"Ghoul I told you we can't jump yet." Kobra Kid sat on the top of the diner sign with Fun Ghoul. Ghoul was standing on the sign clutching the umbrella from the one outside patio table. 

"We've been out here for 5 hours." Ghoul moaned.  
"I haven't finished measuring the wind speed." Kobra replied, fiddling with the wind speed measure.  
"I'm gonna jump."  
"Hold your fire." Kobra said.  
"Nope I'm done." Ghoul dropped the umbrella and leaped off the roof. Kobra didn't notice until Ghoul landed in the dirt.  
"Shit." He opened the umbrella and jumped off after him. Gripping until his knuckles were white. 

Once on the ground he ran over to Ghoul. He was lying on the ground, covered in dust, smirking.  
"Heyy." He said.  
"You fucking idiot." Kobra looked down at him. "You haven't broken anything have you?"  
"Not yet." Ghoul lifted an arm so that Kobra could help him up.  
"Let's go inside."

They went inside to catch a breather. 15 minutes later Ghoul was bored again.  
"Kobra-"  
"Yes I know you're bored." He replied.  
"I'm going to look in the supply closet." Ghoul left and came back with a scratched up skateboard.  
"What are we going to do with that?"  
"What do you think?" Ghoul said. "Ride it around the diner. What else?"  
"You've got to be kidding me." 

Many table collisions and chair flights later Ghoul made another fall off the skateboard and nearly kicked a chair into a window.  
"Haha. Geez you're bad at this." Kobra laughed.  
"You try then." Ghoul threw the skateboard at him. "It's harder than it looks." 

Kobra rode around for a bit and managed to stay on the board, much to the envy of Ghoul.  
"Why are you so good at this? It's not fair." Ghoul sulked. Kobra continued skating around and laughing at Ghoul until his knee buckled and he faceplanted onto the concrete.  
"Ow."  
Ghoul skipped over, chuckling. "Never mind I retract my statement." He sat down next to him. "You're almost as bad as me."  
Kobra looked at him. "I was doing ok. You crashed into a table."

Party Poison and Show Pony came by a while later.  
"Where the fuck have you guys been?" Fun Ghoul asked.  
"Out." Show Pony replied, chucking a bag of 25 Carbons at him.  
"We're having a party tonight. it's New years." They said.  
"It's new years already?"  
"Unless we miss-counted it is. Everyone I've spoken to today has agreed it's new years eve." Show Pony said "Anyway you and Poison are going to the store to get drinks and cigarettes."  
"Cigarettes are bad for you." Kobra stated.  
"These ones aren't. They haven't made those ones since 2015."  
"Whatever you say."

"So what store are we going to?" Ghoul asked as he and Poison walked towards 'town' or just a small group of buildings, namely the gas station, DJ Hot Chimp's radio shack, and the store.  
"Tommy Chow Mein's store." Poison replied. "Best trading post in the inner Zones apparently."  
. "That wouldn't be hard in the outer Zones, There's barely anything out there." Ghoul laughed  
"Yeah." Poison chuckled. "A warning though, supposedly Tommy is quite grumpy."  
"Really."  
"Yeah, Cherri has to deal with him every day."  
"Maybe that's why he's so serious all the time."  
"Maybe." 

Poison and Ghoul entered the store. Food and other various goods lay in a strangely organized mess.  
"Where do we start?" Poison murmured. Looking helplessly around the shelves.  
"Poison." Ghoul called. "I found some cases of beer."  
"What kind?"  
"Uh, lager I think."  
"That should be fine."

Behind the counter stood Tommy Chow Mein, right then they could see why Cherri complained about him all the time. Tommy's deep scowl was framed by greasy black hair. He wore a dirty blue suit and tie stained with engine oil.

"Hi." Poison nervously dragged the beer over.  
"Ok we need these three cases of beer, what's your lowest price?" Ghoul barged in.  
"17 Carbons." Tommy said.  
"Really?" Ghoul sighed.  
"Listen here motherfucker. I brought those for 7 Carbons each." Tommy leaned back in his chair. "17 Carbons. Take it or leave it."  
Poison slid over the money.  
"That's 16."  
Another one was pushed over.

"Also we need cigarettes." Ghoul chucked a packet onto the counter.  
"6 Carbons."  
"But they're priced at only 4 Carbons." Ghoul said.  
"Its my store and I don't like you." Tommy told him  
"Fine." Ghoul said. Handing him another handful of money.

"Why are you smiling so much?" Poison asked. "You just got cheated out of 2 Carbons."  
Ghoul grinned. "Just wait."

They overheard Cherri and Tommy arguing again.  
"This store is a disorganized shithole." Cherri's voice yelled, trying to clean things up.  
"I have a fucking system you asshole!" Tommy yelled back. "It's just too complex for your dumbass brain to comprehend."  
"What system has the deodorant next to the weed?"  
"Only a genius one Sodapop."  
"I swear to Destroya Tom."

Many more crashes and bangs was followed by.  
"Holy shit there's a fucking lizard in the cash drawer!" Tommy yelled.  
Poison looked across at Ghoul.  
"You didn't."  
"I fucking did."  
"I can't believe you." Poison laughed. 

They dragged all the beer back.  
Poison gave Show Pony the last three Carbons.  
"Tommy was in a bad mood?" They asked.  
"You can say that again." Ghoul mumbled. "He charged us 6 Carbons for cigarettes because he didn't like me."  
"Geepers." Show Pony skated over to Jet and Kobra who were stringing lights up around the bar.  
"This is what we've been working on." 

"So how big is this party then?" Jet asked, looking through the bar cupboard.  
"It's New year eve. "It'll be a hoot." Show Pony replied.  
"No one says hoot Show Pony." Ghoul hunted in the cabinet for more alcohol.  
"If you're looking for the harder stuff it's on the top shelf." They replied. "Once you go to Zone parties you'll know it's a hoot. Trust me."  
Ghoul got up with two bottles of vodka.  
"Found them." He said. "Parties in the Lobby were really great too. So I know how to have fun." 

Poison and Kobra stood silent throughout this whole conversation.  
"You guys have never been to a party have you?" Ghoul guessed. Kobra shook his head.  
"You'll have fun tonight then." Ghoul laughed. 

By dusk the diner slowly filled with many brightly dressed people. Music boomed through the radios.  
"This is fun." Kobra told Jet, who was slowly going through a bottle of beer.  
"Good to know." Jet replied concerned about how drunk Kobra looked. The sound of a broken glass made them jump and look over to the crowd of people surrounding Fun Ghoul doing rapid fire shots.

Ghoul looked over to Party Poison in the crowd. A cigarette hanging from his lip. He took his hand and led Poison into the middle of the crowd.  
"This here people, is the best guy. The leader of our gang." Ghoul announced.  
"What's going on?" Poison drunkenly asked.  
"Rapid fire shots." Ghoul replied. "Cigarette?" He switched on his lighter.  
"I'm good." Poison replied pushing past everyone out of the crowd. 

Poison went to sit on the roof away from the crowds. A while later he felt a tight on his hair and a heat close to his neck. He turned his eyes. Ghoul had his hair on one hand and his lighter in the other. Poison flinched and jumped out of the way.  
"Why the fuck are you trying to set fire to me?"  
"Your hair is so greasy. I couldn't help myself." Ghoul whined. Poison downed another shot. Then immediately yelped when Ghoul lit his hair on fire.  
"What the fuck! Why Ghoul?"  
Ghoul was rolling around laughing his ass off.  
"HELP ME!" 

Kobra sat on the floor in the corner, drunkenly dozing. Show Pony had covered him from head to toe in soda cans.  
Jet, who at this point, was also totally wasted, had stolen Show Pony's tattoo pen. He began to attempt a snake tattoo onto Kobra's right foot. He didn't notice until Jet started tattooing on his toe. Kobra's eyes snapped open and he screamed. Jet dropped the pen and flinched as Kobra flailed his hands around. 

 

Sunlight beamed through the diner windows. Trash lay strewn about everywhere. Show Pony and Kobra Kid lay in the diner booth leaning over the table. Ghoul was just slumped over in the corner.  
Jet Star was sleeping under the sofa. He slowly woke up, feeling like conplete shit. 

"Fuck." He mumbled, rolling out from under the sofa, Jet looked around for the others, who were also slowly getting up.

"Where's Poison?" Show pony grabbed their helmet.  
"Still on the roof." Ghoul mumbled from the floor. "He blacked out after I tried to prove how greasy his hair was."  
"Not questioning anything about what you just said." Kobra murmured.  
"We'd better go see of he's ok." Jet said, heading out with Ghoul. Kobra limped behind him. 

Poison groaned and shielded his eyes from the sun. Up around him stood the rest of the guys.  
"Finally Sleeping Beauty awakes from her post  New years rave slumber." Jet laughed.  
"I thought I'd have to break out true love's kiss." Ghoul snickered.  
"You didn't?" Kobra panicked.  
"Relax tumbleweed I'm kidding." Ghoul replied.  
"What? You mean the party's over?" Poison muttered, confused.  
"Oh it's been over for a hot minute." Jet told him.  
"Fucking hell."

Jet helped him up off the roof and they all headed back inside.  
"You really can't handle your alcohol dude."  
"Shut up."

Poison found some water and sat down on the sofa.  
"Kobra you're limping." He said.  
"Oh. Yeah." Kobra replied. "I don't remember what happened."  
"Take your shoes off." Poison told him. After removing the boot, Kobra pulled out his swollen foot with a slightly smudged black worm thing on it.  
"What the fuck?!" Kobra yelled. "What the hell is that thing?!"  
"Ok calm down." Poison said. "Try wash it off." Kobra hobbled out and came back 15 minutes later even more disheveled.  
"It's tattooed on." He sighed. "Even the smudges are stuck there. I don't even know what it's supposed to be."  
"It's a snake." Jet said quietly.  
"What?"  
"I said you have a tattoo of a snake on your foot." He repeated.  
"Wait, does this mean-?" Kobra asked.  
Jet bit his lip and nodded.  
"WHAT THE FUCK!"

______________________________________

Hi ho this chapter was inspired by this art by @ TheHumbug472 on Twitter. You should follow them because they're really talented and they make mcr art a lot.

 

 


	7. 3 Motorbaby

"Ghoul?" Kobra's head popped up from the back of the sofa. Ghoul napped on the sofa.   
"Ghoul." He repeated.  
"What do you want?" He grizzled and rolled over.  
"I need you to help me get revenge on Jet for the foot snake."   
Ghoul immediately pricked up.   
"Revenge? Now you're talking." Ghoul sat up quickly.  
"So, what's the plan?" Kobra hopped onto the sofa next to him.

Jet and Poison scrubbed the purple graffiti from the walls.  
"Jet I want to get revenge on Ghoul."  
"For the hair thing?"  
"Yep."  
"You're asking me?"  
"Uh, yes."   
"I'll help when we're done with this."  
"Right. Thanks" Poison continued removing paint while purple stained water ran down his arms. "What's on the radio?"   
"Uh, DJ Hot Chimp's on." Jet fiddled with the radio knobs.  
"That's cool, turn it up." Poison replied.

"It's 2:13 on the Sky motherfuckers and that means the Crash Queen's guide to the Zones is on. I'm the host, DJ Hot Chimp and I'm currently on my way back from my first raid of 2019.   
News from the Lobby; Scarecrow Korse has a new lace ruffle on his shirt, probably coz NewsAgoGo shot a hole in it-"

Poison scoffed. "What is even the point of this show?" He laughed.  
"Nothing other than the fact that it's entertaining." Jet said.   
"Getting the scoop on Korse's fashion sense is great too." Show Pony butted in.   
"Are you going to help out at all?" Jet hinted at them.  
"Afraid not Tumbleweeds, I gotta run."   
Jet shook his head.  
"Back to the radio I guess."

"I got some hot gossip on Mad Gear and the Missile Kid, as most of you know they both went off the grid after their last concert in Zone 4. Worry not Children, Mad Gear gave a statement on channel 6 this morning assuring us that they're fine and will be finishing their tour when they get rid of the Dracs on their tails.

Anyway look at the time it's 3:05, I have to go now but I'll be back next week, same time. Sayonara." 

"That was a weird experience." Poison said.   
"Yep. That's Hot Chimp." Jet agreed. "Anyway we're done here. Let's go before we get fried." 

Dr. Death Defying came in that night from his radio shack across near the diner.  
"Hey Dr. D." Jet said, sipping on an energy drink. "Did you listen to the Crash Queen's guide to the Zones?"   
"Always." He replied. "Chuck me a Zone Runner." Poison threw the energy drink to him as the door flew open.  
"Ah, Hot Chimp herself." Dr. Death said, just as Ghoul leapt in through a window and fired a load of vulture shit at Jet with a spud gun.   
"Why Ghoul!?" Jet raised his arms.   
"Just instructed to carry out some sweet revenge." He replied. "Courtesy of the Kobra Kid."  
"Why?"  
"You tattooed a snake on my foot." Kobra came in as if on command.   
"I was drunk!" Jet said, exasperated.  
"And now we're even." Kobra replied. "No hard feelings."   
"And now I have bird shit on my jacket."  
"Whatever way you look at it." 

In the middle of this commotion a little girl with a biker hat eating a sandwich followed Hot Chimp in.

"I found her in Zone 1." Hot Chimp told Dr. D. "She had these papers with her." D looked the papers over before deciding.   
"Yeah these are fake." He said.  
"Why would you say that?" Hot Chimp asked.  
"They say she's supposed to be a 16 year old boy named Kai Hollis."   
"Ah."

Ghoul's ears pricked up at the mention of the name. He came over.  
"I knew Kai." He told D and Hot Chimp. He read over the papers. Kneeling down to the girl, he spoke to her.  
"You're Grace Hollis aren't you?"   
She nodded and then said in response.  
"You're short."   
"Seriously her too!?" Ghoul rolled his eyes and looked towards Dr. Death.  
"Weellll-" he began.  
"Never mind don't finish that." Ghoul stood again. "D she has to stay with us. I promised Kai I would look after her."   
D thought for a moment.   
"Ok the rest of you go clean up the storage room so we can use the bunks again. Show Pony can take any stuff we don't need to trade at Tommy's for some extra Carbons." 

He motioned for Ghoul to sit.   
"So tell me what you know about this girl and Kai."   
"Ok." Ghoul said. "This might take a while."   
"We have ages."  
"Right well, I found Kai and Grace on a misson to blow up a BLI control tower in the Lobby in 2015. I was in a mercenary gang." He sighed. "He told me his parents had died that day."

Ghoul handed D a photograph. In it was a younger Ghoul sitting next to a boy with short curly hair holding a small toddler, Grace.  
"This was taken three days before BLI breached the base. Grace disappeared and Kai was killed along with most of the gang."

D looked on, concerned.   
"I'm sorry. This makes all too much sense." He said. "I think I know what's going on. At least part of it. I'll tell you and the others tomorrow."   
"I have to wait? Seriously?"   
"Yep. I'm going to bed. Goodbye." 

Ghoul headed into the newly cleaned storage room. Found himself the nearest bunk and fell asleep almost instantly. 

Poison had tried to sleep but awoke not quite an hour later. Jet was also still up, cleaning his jacket.  
"Jet." He whispered.  
"What?"  
"How do you feel now about helping me with my revenge plan."   
"Sure." Jet smirked. "What do we do?"  
Poison walked over and sat down  
"Cover him in engine oil and get the blowtorch?" Poison suggested jokingly.  
"Not the best idea to fight fire with fire."  
"That's all too literal in this situation."

They thought a bit more.  
"Wait Ghoul's scared of birds isn't he?" Jet pondered.  
"That gives me the best idea." Poison replied.  
"We're not bringing birds inside." Jet said.  
"No, we'll put Ghoul outside and cover him in seeds."   
"Won't he wake up?"  
"He sleeps like a log, waking him up is almost impossible."   
"True."

Poison and Jet gently lay Ghoul down on the ground by the door. Poison grabbed a handful of seeds out of the bag and sprinkled them over him.   
"Sleep well Ghouly." He smirked at Jet before they headed back inside.

Ghoul yawned and spat out the sand he just inhaled. Utterly confused by his whereabouts. He became aware of a weird poking sensation on his back. He turned to see a large ugly vulture pecking away at the seeds laid on him.

Ghoul squawked. The bird squawked back. They continued this back and forth for a bit before Ghoul headed for the door at great pace.

The girl and Kobra Kid's button stack toppled over when the front door slammed open at full force and Fun Ghoul stomped in.   
"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Kobra mumbled. Ghoul let out a shocked mocking laugh as if to say 'ya think!?' then marched over to Jet Star and Party Poison.   
"Did you drink again?" Jet offered to him.  
"Oh cut the bullshit, what the fuck were you thinking!?" He yelled.  
"What were you thinking when you lit my hair on fire!?" Poison yelled back.  
"I was fucking wasted!"   
"Your fault for doing rapid fire shots!"   
"It was New Year's Eve!"   
Kobra intervened.  
"Ok guys we got our fucking revenge plans just stop." He said. "We're even now." The others groaned but sat down. 

"Ok everyone sit down and shut up this is important." Dr. Death Defying announced.   
"You four will be protecting her from now on." D motioned to the girl who was stacking up the button tower again.  
"So why is this important?" Jet asked.

"Her mother led the fight against BLI in the Analog wars. Her name was Paramore Locascio."   
They still all looked confused.

The four were confused, but kept listening.  
"We have reason to believe that Kai and Grace used to be called Jonathan and Jennifer Locascio."   
"So why is this important?" Jet asked.  
"She maybe the one to free everyone." D said. "Paramore promised me this. I don't know how but I'll follow her wishes."   
"Ok." Poison said. "I'll protect her."   
"And me." Ghoul added.  
"Same." Kobra mumbled.  
Jet raised a hand in agreement.

They dropped the last of their stuff in the middle of the floor. The girl immediately jumped on top of all the sheets.   
"Steady on Motorbaby we need that stuff." Poison laughed. "You can find something good on the radio though." She jumped up and ran over to find a station. Several whirs and clicks later Mad Gear came on.  
"Oh phew she has good music taste." Ghoul sighed.

A couple of hours of redecorating the room and jamming out to Black Dragon Fighting Society, Mastas of RavenKroft and other such good hits.

"So glad Mad Gear's back." Jet said.  
"Yeah the airways haven't been as nice."   
"Quick change channels Dr. D is on!" Ghoul said a little loudly. "He smiled at the girl. "You're gonna love this Baby Joy." He said.  
Jet fiddled with the radio until the familiar 'Sky station' rang out followed by the famous intro.

"Look alive, Sunshine.  
109 in the Sky but the pigs won't quit.  
You're here with me Dr. Death Defying.  
I'll be your surgeon your proctors, your helicopter!  
Pumpin' out the slaughtermatic sounds to keep you alive.  
A system failure for the masses, antimatter for the masterplan!  
Louder than God's revolver and twice as shiny.  
This one's for all you rock'n'rollers.  
All you crash queens and motorbabies.  
Listen up!   
The future is bulletproof.  
The aftermath is secondary.  
Killjoys, make some noise!"

"Best part of the day." Kobra said as they got back to putting together the room.  
"That was fun." The girl said, clearly enjoying the moment.


	8. The Marketplace

Party Poison slammed the breaks of the smoking TransAm, jumping out and bolting inside.  
"Guys the car's busted!" He yelled into the empty diner, save for Fun Ghoul.  
"I had to run from a fire fight and the Dracs shot it up." He waited anxiously for the crazy mad reaction.  
"Poison calm down."  Ghoul told him. "We'll take a look at it."

The car threw loads of smoke in their faces as Ghoul threw open the hood.  
"Fucking hell." He muttered.  
"What's wrong?" Poison appeared over his shoulder. Ghoul muttered more unintelligible crap, took out the hammer, and started poking around at the machinary. Moments later he was hammering in the engine. Poison stood and watched with wide, worried eyes as Ghoul smashed up the already fucked car.  
"Ghoul I'm not sure that's a good idea." Poison said. Next minute the wiring sparked and the motor combusted. Poison tackled Ghoul put of the way  
"Fuck." Ghoul rolled out of Poison's grasp onto the ground.  
"For Destroya's sake." Poison said. "You're a huge idiot you know that?"  
"Don't rub it in." Ghoul mumbled.

Neither of them bothered to get up until Jet Star's panicked disappointed face blocked out the sun.  
"I got into a clap and had to run for it." Poison said before Jet could ask. "Dracs shot up the car."  
"They could have followed us." Jet said, slightly panicky.  
"Don't worry I set off a detonator in their van and ghosted all the Dracs. No one followed me."  
"Oh good." Jet calmed down a bit. "Ghoul you're banned from working on the car." He said. Ghoul rolled his eyes and got up off the ground, then going to help Poison.  
"Your arms are completely scorched." Jet worried. Poison stared at his burned, wounded forearms. "It's fine honestly."  
"Bullshit. I'll try fix the car you go inside and sort yourself out." Jet told him.  
"Fine."

Poison took some salt water and bandages out of the cabinet. Setting them down on the table. He began to clean off the burns, trying not to flinch as the salt water seeped into the ray gun wounds.  
He felt someone holding down his hand.  
"Hands off I'm doing it." Ghoul told him, snatching the cloth off him.  
"Why?"  
"How would you do your right arm?" Ghoul said. "Just, let me help ok."  
"Fine. Did Jet make you?" Poison asked. Laying his arms on the table.  
"No. I felt like I needed to." Ghoul replied.  
"Thanks " Poison muttered.  
"No problem." Ghoul finished bandaging his arms. 

"Oh God are you ok?!" Kobra Kid arrived and headed over to him.  
"Hey. Yeah I'm fine." Poison assured him. "The mission went a little haywire. I detonated a Drac van and they shot up the car. It's pretty banged up."  
"Right." Kobra said. "Where's our Crash Queen anyway?"  
"Tommy's."  
"How did-?"  
"Cherri bribed him."  
"Oh."  
"I need to get her anyway." Poison stood. "Wanna come?"  
"Sure."

Kobra and Poison headed to town in the cool evening breeze. The sky was a marble of vibrant red and yellow.  
"It's nice out here." Kobra noted.  
"Yeah."

The doorbell rang as they headed into the store.  
Poison went up to the counter where Tommy Chow Mein sat smoking a cigar with his dirty leather shoes on the bench.  
"Hey Tommy have you seen-?"  
"She's playing with the spare power converters round the back."  
"Tom!" 

They bolted to the back where the girl happily sat poking with bits of metal and live wires.  
"Ok Motorbaby we're going now." Poison hoisted her onto his arms. "Don't play with electricity." He told her. "Trust me with that one." She nodded in response.

She walked home in between Poison and Kobra holding their hands and marveling at the sunset.

They passed by Jet on the way in.  
"How's the car?" Kobra asked.  
"Well thanks to Ghoul the fan belt has snapped and the engine is caved in, thanks to the Dracs the wiring has broken and the motor has combusted. A bunch of other things too but I've mostly fixed those."  
"Oh God. You weren't living when you said it was fucked." Kobra said.  
"Yeah." Jet breathed as they all headed inside.

Show Pony, Cherri Cola and Dr. Death Defying came in about an hour later. Show Pony had a bunch of stuff in their helmet.  
"Great news Tumbleweeds we've got some- Poison what did you do?"  
"Uh, Fire Fight." He told them.  
"Ah. Anyways all the extra machonary and jackets we had I managed to sell to some poor desperate sod for 350 Carbons."  
"350!" Jet exclaimed.  
"Yep." Show Pony replied. "And the market is in tomorrow near the radio shack. We can stock up on supplies and split the rest for personal stuff."  
"Whoo score!" Ghoul was ecstatic.  
"One thing. You guys have to chip in a few of your Carbons for a new fan belt." Jet said.  
"But Ghoul broke it." Kobra complained.  
"Poison got the car dusted in the first place." Ghoul whined.  
"No discussions. 5 Carbons each."  
Many groans were expressed but they gave the Carbons to Jet.

Excited vibes buzzed around the diner the next morning As soon as the girl had found out she had squealed and leaped about the place.

"So who's taking the girl?" Cherri asked while drinking a tiny mug of coffee.  
"My turn." Poison said. "Damn we're out of coffee."  
"Yeah, we'll get more don't worry." 

"Keep an eye out for the boxes." Show Pony had told them. "They're the best deals even if you don't know what you're getting half the time."

Poison and the girl eyed up the pens at the art supplies store. She pushed a pack of felt tips towards Poison who purchased them along with a journal, metal paint and more art pens for himself.

He then headed to the weapons stall.  The girl wondered through a rack of clothes in the next store over.  
"Three packs of ray gun ammunition and uh, I'll take the box too." Poison went to find the girl who held an orangish kimono looking shirt. She looked at him with a hopeful gaze.  
"Ok Motorbaby I'll buy that for you." He said as his eye landed on his dream purchase, a box labeled 'Comics. 2 Carbons.'

"Do you have a size 2 fan belt?" Jet asked the lady at the stall.  
"Yeah its 23 Carbons." She replied.  
"20?"  
"I can do that for you."  
10 minutes later Jet's money had gone into a set of boxes, one containing real food and the other had books for himself. He had a tin of coffee and a battered deck of cards balanced on top.

Kobra had already brought more medical supplies, an electric laser glove, a carton of eggs and a box labeled 'misc gadgets'.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder, making him jump so hard his sunglasses nearly fell off.  
"Hello sonny!" The guy belted in his face. "How would you like to join our contest?"  
"Um."  
"That's what I like to hear. Go on over there." He gestured to the little course drawn in the sand. Kobra awkwardly joined the five or so people the start line.

"Ok when I say climb into the sacks and go down the track!" The loudspeaker boomed.  
"On your mark, get set, Go!"

Kobra clambered into the sack and bounded down the track. Panicking every step of the way. His sunglasses fell off his face and were crushed underneath his feet. Kobra loved his sunglasses.

Ghoul looked over from the scrap yard to see Kobra jumping along in a hessian sack. Proceeding to laugh his guts off as Kobra dove toward the finish line.

Kobra coughed the sand out his lungs. The umpire stood above him.  
"Well done sonny. You won!"  
"What?" Kobra confusedly asked. He looked to where the guy was gesturing at.  
"A motorbike?"  
"But I-"  
"Take it. You don't have a choice."

Ghoul's eyes caught sight of a shiny white Les Paul guitar. He immediately fell in love.

They all looked as Kobra parked the motorbike up by the diner.  
"How did you get that for less than 40 Carbons?" Jet asked, stunned.  
"Its complicated." Kobra replied.  
"Did you steal it?" Poison asked.  
"No. I sort of, ended up in a sack race. And I won."  
"Wow. Congrats Mikes!" Poison hugged him. "The bike will be useful."  
"Also my sunglasses broke."  
"Damn."

They all sat around the turn table, listening to Dr. D's new Sex Pistols vinyl and drinking the beer Cherri got.  
"So did we manage to replace the supplies?" Show Pony asked, dealing out shots of whiskey.  
"I replenished our ammo supply." Poison said. Chucking a set of shells to the guys. "Don't go through it too quickly, these are really expensive at the moment."  
"Yeah yeah." Ghoul loaded his ray gun.  
"I also got weapon and comic boxes." Poison added.  
He cut one of the boxes open with his knife, took out 5 bombs, 6 detonators, a bunch of vintage pistols and more ammunition.  
"What comics did you get?" Ghoul asked.  
"Let's see." Poison cut open the other box. "Ok wow, the entire Tintin series and 7 Batman comics from 1988."  
"Nice." Cherri took a swig of alcohol. "You gonna keep those? They'll be worth a lot otherwise."  
"Obviously."

"I found this thing." Kobra took out the electric laser glove. Ghoul looked on with wide eyes. "That's fuckin shiny!"

"Also this weird thing." Kobra took out a small device with a three sided centre piece spinning on bearings.  
"I don't know what it is but-" he gave it a spin. "Its kind of fun to spin though."  
Ghoul went to spin it and his eyes immediately lit up.  
"It's a fidget spinner." Dr. Death said. "They were a big thing in 2017."  
"I don't get it." Poison said to Kobra who was fiddling with a small plastic cube.

"What did you find Ghoul?"  
"Just this." He lifted up the guitar he found, this time covered in holographic stickers.  
"Her name's Pansy."  
"Pansy?"  
"Pansy." He lovingly stroked the guitar. The others were slightly concerned by this but were glad he had something to do other than light bushes on fire and blow shit up in the desert.  
"Oh Yeah I also got more scrap parts and cigarettes, engine oil, the like." He muttered.  
"More cigarettes Ghoul?"  
"Hey I got them because they were cheap and Tommy hates me." The others looked on, unimpressed.  
"The man charges me 6 Carbons for cigarettes. Fuck I ain't paying that."  
Jet rolled his eyes."You might wanna lay off on those."  
"I'll lay off when I'm dead."  
"That won't be too far away at this rate."  
"There are a thousand other things that could kill me. What's one more to add to the mix?" 

The girl broke the silence.  
"I found these." She held up a blue plastic tube. She struggled to read the title.  
"O-Oray-Oreos." She said. "What are Oreos?" She opened it up and buy down on the first dark brown and white cookie.  
"These are so good." She bounced around excitedly.  
"Lemme try." Ghoul took one and ate it.  
"Yo you gotta try these." The girl handed them around. Following that was a round of satisfaction and instant love for the sugary food.  
"Were there anymore of these?" Show Pony asked.  
"Only one sorry." The girl replied.  
"Wonder why that is?" They pondered. "They're fucking amazing."  
"I'll tell you why." Jet replied. "The use by date is April 2nd 2015."  
"Wish you hadn't told me that." Cherri sighed.  
"Relax man its sugar, it never goes off." Ghoul assured him.

"I brought some eggs." Kobra said.  
"Why?" Show Pony asked.  
"So we could have some real food for once." He replied. "Also I can only make omelettes and quiche."  
"He does make good omelettes." Poison added.  
"What kind of eggs are they?" Cherri asked. Kobra opened his mouth to reply then realized he actually didn't know.  
"Um. I actually have no idea." He admitted.  
"I don't think we'll ever know for sure but there's a high chance that its vulture eggs." Cherri said. "I mean its better than Power Pup."

The girl snuggled under the blanket on her bunk. Poison sat at the end.  
"Poison?"  
"Yeah Motorbaby?"  
"What are you thinking about?"  
He hesitated before answering. "My girlfriend in the city." He told her. "I hope she's doing ok."  
"What was her name?"  
"Lindsey." Poison said. "I used to sing her a song I wrote once."  
"Can I hear it?" The girl asked.  
"Ok. I suppose it can be your song now." He replied. My singing may be a bit off though."

Poison took a deep breath and started singing.

"When the lights go out.  
Will you take me with you.  
And carry this broken bone.  
Through six years in crowded rooms.  
And highways I call home.

It's something I can't know 'til now.  
'Til you pick me off the ground.  
With a brick in hand, your lip gloss smile, your scraped up knees"

Poison sang the chorus.

"And if you stay I would even wait all night.  
Or until my heart explodes.  
How long until we, find our way.  
In the dark and out of harm.  
You cam run away with me, anytime you want."

His voice faded out as he saw the girl had fallen asleep. He smiled.


	9. 5 Draculoid ambush

Kobra Kid fired the last shell out of his ray gun and quickly ducked down under cover of the TransAm.  
He reached in his pocket for his last magazine, reloaded and continued gunning down the seemingly endless number of Draculoids surrounding them.

Kobra had gone out with Poison, Show Pony and Ghoul had gone out to ambush a Drac group in Zone 4. Their plan had gone more than a little haywire and the Dracs had called for backup, a Lot of backup. Current mission: try and escape with their lives.

Fun Ghoul skidded down next to him as ray gun fire narrowly flew above his head.  
"Seen any way out of here?" Here breathlessly asked Kobra.  
Kobra shook his head in reply. "We're still completely surrounded by Dracs."  
"Fuck. Where's Show Pony?"  
"They went off to try detonate all the vans. Poison?" Kobra nervously asked.  
"He's making a break in the gun fire so we can escape." 

Party Poison ran back just over three minutes later.  
"Guys the Scarecrows are here." He told them, his words barely audible over the ray gun fire.  
"What?" Ghoul yelled back.  
"Scarecrows! Where's Show Pony? We need to run."  
"There!" Kobra pointed to Show Pony struggling to fight through the Dracs blocking them from the car.  
"Shit." Poison cursed under his breath.  
"For fucks sake!" Ghoul jumped up and ran over to Show Pony.

Cold Drac hands held them down. Show Pony struggled to lift and shoot their pink ray gun.  
The pressure on their throat lifted as Ghoul came through the dust and shot up the Dracs holding them down.

"Hey." Ghoul helped them up off the ground.  
"Thanks." Show Pony said. "I saw the Scarecrows."  
"Yeah. We're making a run for it before we get ghosted." Ghoul and Show Pony made their way back to the car.

"Shit more fucking Dracs!! How much backup do they need!? " Ghoul took his gun out of its holster and started firing. Show Pony followed.  
Many hits later they were clear enough to run towards the car, shooting the last Dracs as they went.

 

Ghoul felt the skin above his eyebrow tear open. His body went limp as a searing pain built up on the right side of his face. He had been shot before though it didn't make it any more bearable. 

Show Pony lifted him up off the sand and carried him towards the car. From there Ghoul's eyelids dropped and he slipped away into blissful unawareness.

Poison watched Show Pony carry an unconscious Ghoul over their shoulder.  
They put him in the back and leaped into the passenger seat.  
"We have an opening. Drive!"  
Poison floored the accelerator and the car sped off, spraying sand onto the wind. 

Show Pony detonated the explosives and the space behind them erupted into flames.  
"Ok cleared our tail, speed up" they said. "Ghoul needs medical attention."  
"Will he be ok?" Poison asked.  
"Hopefully. Head wounds bleed a lot but it's still quite serious." Kobra replied.  
Ghoul's head rested on his lap. He still had the faintest sign of a smirk, which would've been cute if not for the seriousness of the situation. 

 

Ghoul stood over the dead Draculoid. He reached down and took the handle of the shiny white ray gun and taking off down the street, bodies from both sides littering the path. Shooting down every enemy in sight.  
'Finally, I can avenge Kai and Grace." He thought to himself.  
Scarecrows up ahead.

Both he and the Scarecrow had their guns aimed at each other's heads. Both fully aware of the others capability of pulling the trigger.  
"Where is she?!" The Scarecrow hissed in his face.  
"You have her. You took her years ago."  
"We never found her. We know you have her whereabouts. Tell me." He released the safety on the gun.  
"Well I don't. I wouldn't tell you anyway."  
"Maybe this will convince you?" A lady with a severe black bob came over with gun to the skull of a dark haired girl.  
"Jamia." The words barely made it out as he lowered the gun.

"Frankie watch out!" She shouted to him just as something struck his head and he fell to the ground. Aware it was his own blood staining the pristine white baseball bat swinging back and forth in his blurry vision.  
Why, why had he been so stupid to get caught out in his escape like this?  
The sound of a gun went off above him.

 

Ghoul's eyes fluttered open. He saw the familiar graffitied diner ceiling come into focus.  
Jet Star pulled at his eyebrow as he put stitches in it.

He noticed Ghoul was awake and breathed a sigh of relief.  
"You're ok." He smiled. Ghoul however, remained in the lost shocked expression. Jet saw something was up.  
"Ghoul what's wrong?" He asked. Ghoul muttered some intelligible words as he sat up, still looking incredibly freaked out.  
"Was it another nightmare?"  
Ghoul nodded. Tears started forming in his eyes. Soon they ran fast down his cheeks.

Jet sat next to him and pulled him in for a hug. Ghoul unexpectedly reciprocated it.  
"It was awful." He said. "I was trying to escape. They used Jamia to find Grace." Ghoul gripped tighter to Jet's jacket. "They killed her." He mumbled. "They fucking killed her!" He stopped and sighed. "I'm being pathetic I know. It was over a year ago and I need to move on but-."  
Jet muttered a no and let Ghoul cry on his shoulder for a few more minutes. 

"I'm sorry." Ghoul said "I'm a complete wreck."  
"Ghoul, it's fine. Just promise me you'll get some rest." Jet got up to leave. "I need to check on the others."  
He nodded a reply as Jet left the room.

 

Jet sat down with the others. Kobra helped Show Pony bandage the ray gun wound on their shoulder.  
"How's Ghoul?" He asked.  
"Still hasn't woken up yet." Jet decided to lie, thinking Ghoul didn't want visitors. "He's going to be ok though." He assured them.  
"That's good." Poison said. "Man, today was rough."  
"No kidding." Show Pony agreed. "Still confused why the Scarecrows were there."  
"Yeah it's puzzling." Cherri Cola said. "They wouldn't leave the city unless it was serious. The sheer amount of Dracs out there is weird too."  
"How many are there? if they can waste almost a thousand on us." Poison wondered.  
"Masses." Kobra mumbled. "Anyway its getting late we'd better head in for the night."  
"I'll be in soon." He replied.

 

Poison headed up to the roof. Fun Ghoul sat at the edge gazing up at the stars. 

"Hey you're up." Poison set himself down next to Ghoul.  
"Hi." he replied not making eye contact.  
"No cigarettes?"  
"Nah."  
Poison decided to change the subject. "It's nice out here tonight."  
"Yeah. It is." Ghoul agreed. He paused before continuing. "My name was Frank, In the city. I wanted you to know."  
Poison looked at him. "Thank you for telling me. My name was Gerard."  
"I knew that, Mikey told me. But thanks."  

They lay next to each other on the roof.   
"It's amazing how many stars there are to see without the satellites blocking them." Ghoul said.

"Yeah it's really beautiful without the city lights." Poison gazed and turned to Ghoul. "It's nice to have you back. You scared us."  
"Not my fault I got shot in the head fucker." He retorted jokingly. Poison smiled, the Ghoul they knew and loved was coming back.


	10. 6 Rainfall

"Done!" The girl held up a mirror. Party Poison took it and looked into it. She had painted his eyelids with Ghoul's neon green, UV glow eyeshadow that everyone else wanted to burn  Metallic blue makeup was messily streaked across his lips and orange swirled in spirals on his cheeks.

Fun Ghoul didn't laugh, he stood there the whole time with the most evil smirk, snickering rather loudly.  
Kobra Kid had kept his uninterested, poker face and sunglasses for a long time but at this point he was on the ground cackling hysterically. A rare sight.   
Even the stoic, righteous Jet Star, who normally was calm and diplomatic, bit his fist in an attempt to stifle a giggle.

Poison lowered the mirror, a smile on his face.  
"Thank you Moterbaby," he said. "It's great."   
"Are you sure?" She said. "I don't think Kobra's ok." She pointed to where Kobra was still shaking and rolling around, struggling for a breath.

"Showing emotion isn't his strong point." Ghoul told her. She gave a confuzzled nod.

"Oh Sunshine what have you done to Poison?" Show Pony exclaimed as they came in.  
"I couldn't take her dune sledding." Poison replied.  
"So I get to do makeup on him." The girl said. "That's the agreement."  
"Oooh nice." Show Pony said. "Let me try." They grabbed the pink lipstick and drew a heart on Poison's forehead.   
"My go." Cherri Cola came in and snatched the lipstick tube to draw a starfish.   
Ghoul joined the fun soon after as the three grown adults helped the girl do the most ridiculous designs on Poison's face.

Kobra picked up an eyeliner pen that had fallen on the floor and doodled on Poison's jeans.

"Wow Ghoul." Jet deadpanned. "Real mature."   
Ghoul giggled, dropped the pen and held up his hands.   
"Where's your proof?"  
"I saw you."   
Ghoul couldn't think of a comeback so he just burst out laughing.  
"Wait what's going on?" Poison asked.  
"Ghoul drew a dick on your face." Kobra replied from the floor, still doodling.   
"What!?!??" Poison jumped up, kicking Kobra in the stomach in the process.

Poison ran off to find another mirror, followed by Ghoul and Show Pony while Kobra lay winded on the ground. 

Poison stared at Ghoul's atrocious artwork placed inside the heart Show Pony drew. Ghoul's smug face appeared over his shoulder.

The girl sat down on Kobra's knees.  
"Hello." She grinned.  
"Hi Crash Queen." He mumbled. "Am I going get off this filthy floor at some point tonight?" She shrugged in reply.  
"You're not going to move are you?"  
"No." She replied.

Five minutes of scrubbing proved unsuccessful. Poison sighed.  
"I regret my life decisions." He said.  
"I would too if I was in your position." Ghoul agreed.  
"The thought that you would draw a dick on your own forehead is honestly plausible."   
"You know you love me, you fuckwit." Ghoul cheekily grinned.  
"Fuck off." Poison half heartedly joked and continued scrubbing. "Please say this isn't that stupid hard to remove shit that Show Pony insists on keeping around?"   
Ghoul's hesitation gave all the answers he needed.  
"Fuck."

"I see you've started moving in." Jet said to Kobra, who was still pinned to the ground, drinking coffee and reading Poison's Batman comic.  
He glanced at Jet, at the girl and back to the comic.  
"Right." Jet went off to find food.

"Thank you." Poison snatched his comic back. Kobra just groaned in reply.  
"Will you get off me if I stargaze with you?" He pleaded. Before he finished the girl had already run out the door.  
Kobra sighed in relief and followed her out. 

He found her already sitting on the roof with her wide eyes on the stars.   
Kobra joined her, sitting down and resting his chin on his knees. 

"Did you have a good day?" He asked her.  
"It was alright. I was glad you didn't have any missions today."  
"Yeah. It was too humid for any of that." Kobra agreed. "I swear I've killed more Dracs this month than in my entire life."   
"Scary." She huddled up closer.  
"Yeah. It can be." He said. "Look I found the spider constellation."   
"I see it!" The girl exclaimed.   
"That one looks like a unicorn." Kobra said.  
"It does." She agreed. "Can that be our special constellation?"  
"Definitely." He said.  
"I like unicorns"  
"Same."

Ghoul got up early and went to get the things he needed; Some small pieces of metal, glass and a blowtorch.

Pulling down his goggles and set to work, welding the metal and glass into a small terrarium. 

Satisfied with his work, Ghoul pushed his goggles up onto his head and went looking for a cactus.  
Finding the cactus was easy (coz it's a desert) he had a few off cuts of cacti and succulents with him. He filled the terrarium with dirt and put the plants in it.   
'Perfect.' He thought.

Poison got up and played out his usual morning routine; run his fingers through his bedhead hair, get his jacket and ray gun, eyeliner, find coffee. Main objective. Find coffee.

The coffee was easier to swallow than usual as it was actually in date.   
Jet came in and silently took his coffee. Poison noticed he seemed off when he didn't try to stop him sneaking a second coffee. The usual interjection of "Poison we don't have that much coffee and it's probably made of shit."  
"Are you ok Jet?"  
"Yeah. It's just the um humidity, it makes you feel kinda crummy ya know?"   
"Um, sure." He was unconvinced. "I call bullshit."  
"Ok fine, I just don't feel that great. Please don't make a big deal of it."   
"Ok. Just don't die on me."   
"I'll be fine it's honestly just humidity." Jet replied.  
"I know it's weird for the desert to be this way." Poison drank more coffee.

"Hey Jet." Kobra came in. "What's up?"  
"I've been better." He replied. "What's that date again?"  
"Everyone thinks it's July 15th so were going off that." He told him.   
"I'm gonna go get some air." Jet headed out. Leaving the concerned Kobra and Poison in the kitchen.

He shut the door and leaned against the wall. Feeling a bit bad for being so cold towards Kobra and Poison. Jet felt that hiding it would be worse though. 

Ghoul snuck up next to him and started imitating his sad mopey stance.   
"What do you want?" Jet asked, slightly irked by his presence. 

Ghoul revealed a terrarium he hid behind his back.  
"Happy birthday."   
Jet's face immediately lit up.  
"Thank you." He took the terrarium. "This is cool! When did you make it?:  
"This morning." Ghoul replied.  
"You got up early for this?"   
"Consider that the main part of the gift." Ghoul said. "Anyway why do you look so depressed? You're twenty fucking years old now."   
"No one really seemed to notice that."  
"That might be because you didn't tell them Jet."   
"I know I know. That's why it's stupid." He sighed. "How do you know anyway?"   
"Overhead you talking to Cherri about it."   
"Wow. I'm impressed you remembered that."   
"Same honestly."

Ghoul paraded Jet into the diner.  
"Listen up everyone it's my man Jet Star's fucking birthday!"   
"Swear jar Ghoul." Jet mumbled, aware that the girl was in the room. Ghoul sighed and rummaged around in his back pocket for a Carbon.  
"Consider yourself lucky it's your birthday." 

Kobra came in.  
"What's up with the noise?"  
"It's Jet's birthday." Poison informed.  
Kobra gave Jet the omelette he had just made.  
"You can have this. It's a pretty shit birthday present I know."  
"Hey relax dude it's fine." Jet assured him.

Their morning was spent trying to escape the unusual weather.   
Ghoul fiddled with some old scrap part he had which he assured everyone it wasn't a live bomb.   
Poison had given Jet a few comics and they sat reading those.  
Kobra and the girl made a card tower.

The girl screamed just as the thunder went off, knocking over the card tower.   
The soft patter of rain slowly started up.   
Show Pony's eyes lit up.  
"Haha! It's raining." They skated out.

Ghoul knelt down next to the girl who was hiding under the table.  
"Hey Babyjoy it's alright it's just raining." He said calmly. "You wanna go check it out?"   
She nodded.  
"Only if I can be Jet's shoulders so I can be closer to the sky."   
Ghoul knew it was another comment on his height (or lack thereof) but he pushed it aside and followed the others out.

Show Pony and Cherri brought out every bucket they owned and lined the up around the diner to make the most of the water.

Ghoul's moment of maturity had passed and he now held onto Kobra's leg with a koala hug.   
Kobra pretended not to notice and proceeded to let Ghoul be dragged along the ground. 

Jet had the girl on his shoulders and as she tried to catch raindrops.

"Nice to see you smiling again." Poison grinned. "You got a pretty good birthday present."   
"Yeah. I suppose rain is pretty lucky in the desert." Jet replied. The girl clambered down and went to latch onto Kobra's other leg.

"You can pretend that you're older than me again." Poison said.  
"I guess I can. Everyone thinks I'm older anyway though."   
"True." 

"Well one of you are gonna have to move." Kobra said. "Otherwise we'll keep sinking in the ground and drown."  
The girl moved to cling onto Ghoul instead. He lost his balance and tumbled down the sandbank. 

 

Poison woke to Jet shaking him.  
"We're under attack. Get your things."


	11. 7 Look alive sunshine

Party Poison leaped up, pulling on his jeans and grabbing his jacket. He followed Jet Star out. 

Show Pony pushed aside the loose board in the wall and came through.  
"Cherri's gone out to try slow them down." They flicked through the vinyls eventually picking out a Mad Gear and Missile Kid record. 

Dr. Death Defying had brought in his recording equipment to block up radio signals.

The girl handed Jet and Poison their ray gun holsters and a can of Power Pup. 

Kobra Kid loaded his gun and sat down with the others to try choke down some Power Pup.

Fun Ghoul stood and started packing their things as Dr. D started the radio show.  
Static buzzed slightly and the familiar track began.

"Look alive sunshine." 

Poison knelt down to the girls level.  
"Ok Motorbaby, grab your things. Don't take too long." As she ran off he took the spare ammo explosives off the shelf. 

"109 in the Sky but the pigs won't quit. You're here with me, Dr. Death Defying."

The girl came out with the radio and a bunch of heavily doodled letters. 

"I'll be your surgeon, your proctor, your helicopter.  
Pumping out the slaughtermatic sounds to keep you alive."

Jet and Kobra heaved their long distance radio and detonators into the car.

"A system failure for the masses. Antimatter for the masterplan."

Ghoul lay Pansy on the bunk and said his goodbyes. 

"Louder than God's revolver and twice as shiny." 

Kobra loaded the Power Pup.

"This one's for all you Rock'n'rollers, all you Crash Queens and Motorbabies."

Ghoul came and took the girl's hands.  
Not knowing what else to say he just whispered.  
"Destroya is on our side Babyjoy." He wrapped his arms around her, hoping she couldn't sense the shaking fear. 

"Listen up!" 

"Are we all ready?" Jet asked. Small uncertain nods followed.

"The Future is Bulletproof." 

Show Pony stood at the door, ray gun at the ready.

"The Aftermath is Secondary."

Draculoids appeared through the heatwaves.

"It's time to do it now and do it loud." 

They all glanced once more at Dr. D and Show Pony. Who didn't look away but but said quietly.  
"Run."

"Killjoys, Make Some Noise."


	12. 8 Na Na Na

The TransAm sped onto Route Guano.  
Followed by  two Dracs on motorbikes.

Ghoul and Jet turned and got out of their seats to shoot, it proved majorly ineffective however. Ghoul dragged out his grenade gun. Aiming and extinguishing most of the threat.

He looked down at the girl sitting low in the back seat.  
"Babyjoy, you wanna go?"  
"Yeah." She jumped up.  
Ghoul stood by her as she held the almost as big as her gun.  
He guided her aim as she fired. Shooting a Drac out of a nearby bush.

Mid way through Zone 4 they lost the Dracs. Poison turned off the highway soon after.  
"What's up?" Jet asked.  
"Were out of gas." He replied as they pulled up to a Dead Pegasus. "And we need some beer." 

Jet and Poison went to get the gasoline. The others sat for a while fiddling with the car radio.

"Come on I'll show you how to use a Vendahack." Kobra grabbed the small hacking device and followed the girl went to the vending machine. 

Ghoul continued to sit in the car being bored for a bit before getting out his equipment out on the car hood and putting together more detonators. 

"Ok let's see if this works." Kobra plugged in the VendaHack.   
"46528." He muttered as he keyed in the code and punched the Power Pup button. Relieved when the small white can rolled out. The girl pressed a few more buttons and more cans dispensed out.  
"Can we get a ray gun?" She asked.  
"We can try." 

15 minutes of hacking later and an unpainted white ray gun dispensed out of the vending machine.  
"Yes!" Kobra held up his hand. The girl in return high fived it.

Poison returned to the car.  
"Hey Ghoul."  
Ghoul looked up and winked. Laughing straight after when he couldn't take himself seriously. He put away the explosives and joined Kobra at the magazine stand. 

"Watcha reading?" He asked. Kobra's slightly disgusted expression turned towards him.  
"Stuff I wish to unsee." He replied. Showing him the pages the 'Murder' magazine.  
Ghoul shared his expression, took a magazine called 'Shiny' off the rack and leaning against the car to read it.

"How's that one?" Kobra asked.  
"Shitty cars and robot porn." Ghoul replied. 

Jet came back.  
"Guys we'd better run." He said worryingly.  
"How come?" Poison asked. Jet pointed to the posters showing their faces on the BLI wanted posters on the front window.  
"Fuck how did we not notice that." He turned on the ignition.  
"Guess we're stealing these magazines." Ghoul said as he and Kobra got into the car and drove off. 

"Great more fucking company." Poison groaned, exasperated. Ghoul leaned out of the car to shoot down the Dracs on motorbikes. Jet followed firing from the back.

A black car with the BLI logo came up behind them.  
"What's going on?" Poison asked anxiously.  
"Scarecrow." Jet's reply was barely above a whisper.

"A little help here!" Ghoul yelled.  
"Here." Kobra passed Ghoul his gun from behind his head and climbed out off the passenger seat onto the bike next to them, shoving the Drac riding it onto the road.  
"Kobra!?" Poison took out his gun and started taking down the Dracs in front of them.

Ghoul took the red ray gun in his other hand and fired both simultaneously before Kobra rammed his bike into the other one, quickly jumping back onto the TransAm before the bike bit the dust.  
Jet caught his hand and helped him back up.

"Nice thinking." Poison said as Kobra took his gun back and went back to the passenger seat. 

"Can we stop?" The girl asked.  
"Ok. Why?" Poison asked as he pulled up just by the 'Zone 5.' sign.

They got out and followed the girl to the heavily graffitied letterbox close by the sign.

She held a letter in her hand.  
"Ghoul told me about the Phoenix Witch." The letter read 'Mom'on the front. She slid it into the box followed by two pin badges off her shirt. 

Ghoul put the photograph of them and Kai in.

Poison noticed the setting sun.  
"We should go before they catch up to us." He said.

The slowly darkening sky was met with silence from the car apart from the engine running.

"Do you know where we're actually going?" Kobra asked.  
"As far away from Battery city as possible." Poison replied.  
"This is crazy." Kobra mumbled just as Poison nearly fell asleep at the wheel.  
"Jesus Poison!"  Kobra roughly shook him awake. "You're exhausted. Jet can you drive for a bit?"  
After the seat switch around, Poison almost immediately fell asleep in the back.

The car stopped behind a sand dune.  
"Take what we need and get your mask on." Jet said. "It'll be easier to go through Zone 6 on foot." 

Groans were expressed but Jet was right, the car would get stuck in the sand if they kept going.

Poison slid the Mousekat head on and lead the others through the desert. Soon after though, they stopped.  
"Not worth going anymore now." Poison said. "We'll just get lost." 

They made a small fire to get some light. Trying not to get more than bot coals so they didn't send smoke signals. 

Radio static filled the air as the radio fired up. Poison attempted to find a signal. 

"Dr. Death Defying?" He asked hopefully. Silence.

"D I swear please fucking pick up." Many attempts later his patience was wearing thin. He glanced around nervously.

"Dr. Death Defying!?" He yelled in.  
"Death Defying!!?" He screamed as one last attempt just as the static became unbearable and the battery died.

"It's ok." Kobra whispered in his ear. "Calm down Poison." He said, hugging  him close until Jet alerted them.  
"Guys I hear something approaching."  
Poison thought a bit before replying.  
"Get some night vision goggles we're taking a look." He pulled on his goggles and bandana and grabbed a torch from the coals.

"You see them?" Jet asked. The Dracs stood a few hundred yards away. Ghoul lifted his ray gun to shoot. Poison stopped him.  
"Don't. You'll blow our cover." He told him. "Let's keep going."

By early daylight they reached the rusted metal sign reading 'Danger. Zone 6.'  
A weathered skeleton wearing a black army jacket lay in the sand.  
"Poor guy." Jet mumbled to himself. The girl walked by his side.  
"Come on." Poison beckoned them over.

Ray gun fire whistled overhead. Figures appeared in the distance.  
"Go. Run. We'll hold them off." Poison told her as she ran off, clutching the radio to her chest. 

Poison removed the Mousekat head and pulled on his yellow mask, his red hair dye had stained his neck in the heat.  
"Let's go."  
They wondered among the cacti and tumbleweeds. Shooting down Dracs hiding in the bushes. 

The girl stood frozen to the spot as the Draculoid menacingly approached her.  
Just as they were laying a hand Poison pulled the trigger on the yellow gun blowing the smoke out of the barrel just he got tackled out of the way of a shot.  
Kobra stood over him putting himself between Poison and the Drac. Poison's heart skipped a beat when he saw Kobra's red ray gun drop on the ground. This panic soon left him when Kobra roundhouse kicked the Drac in the face. Punching and hitting off the threat.  
Kobra was a fucking beast in hand to hand combat.  
He grabbed another Drac by the throat, pressed some buttons on his electric laser glove and dropped it to the ground.

Ghoul and Jet ran over.  
"Is everyone ok?" Ghoul asked, pulling off his Frankuloid mask to rest on his forehead.  
"Yeah." Poison stood up. "Kobra is a martial arts beast!"  
"I saw." Jet replied. "Well done."

"Uh, guys?" Kobra worriedly pointed.  
The black car parked. A bald guy with an unpainted white ray gun stepped out and approached them.  
He wore a slightly too small pair of sunglasses and a ruffled lace shirt. Three Dracs followed him.  
"Korse." Poison mumbled. 

"So the Fabulous Killjoys." He said, loading his ray gun.  
They stood in front of the girl, guns ready to shoot anyone who came near her.  
"I assume you know what I need." Korse said.  
"You're not going to take her." Kobra told him. None had seen Kobra that angry before.  
Korse laughed.  
"We'll see." 

The girl pushed through them, still holding the radio.  
"No." Poison mumbled under his breath.

Korse lifted his gun. Waiting to shoot.

Poison stood his ground. Seething quietly. The others stood firm, hand at their gun holsters.

The white ray gun made the first shot. Less than a second later Poison had shot back.

The sound of Ghoul yelling "Babyjoy you need to run!" Echoed through his mind as the sky went ablaze.

He heard the sound of struggling and the release of a safety trigger. Confused to what it was. He realized and forced his eyes to open. 

Poison lay on the ground staring down the barrel of a ray gun. Unable to move.  
To the right a Drac held the girl under their arm. He could only watch her struggle until Korse spoke again.  
"Keep running." He lowered the gun just as Poison slipped away again.


	13. 9 Ray guns and denial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof sorry it's been a while. It took a while to formulate some ideas to put a chapter together. 
> 
> I have the end planned out I'm just getting the story to where it needs to be. I think there will be about 2 more chapters and some extra stuff at the end. Just as a rough outline.

Sand ran in through the holes in his boots. Something was digging into his arms. Going against his minds wishes he forced his eyes to open. Blurry desert completed his view.

"Jet?" Party Poison's mumble came out more like a hoarse whisper. "Put me down."   
"Poison!" Jet Star said rather too loudly as he released his hands. "You're alright." He helped him up. Poison went to help Kobra. Jet stopped him.  
"You get Ghoul, it'll be easier for you to carry him. We have to go. There's too much radiation out here." He instructed and went off to help Kobra.

Poison walked over to where Fun Ghoul lay on the ground. His right cheek had been sliced open. Poison cringed at it. It looked nasty.  
"Poison hurry up!" Jet yelled.  
"Ghoul." Poison said, trying to wake him up. Soon realizing that his attempts were futile. He was still out cold.  
"Come on we have to go." Jet came over carrying Kobra.  
"Oh God. Fuck." Poison exclaimed at the giant patch of blood staining Kobra's shirt.  
"That's why we need to hurry." Jet said. "He's losing quite a lot of blood."

"I put a GPS tracker on the car." Poison told him as he pulled on his bandana. "Turns out we walked in circles for most of the day. The car's only two hours away." He hoisted Ghoul onto his shoulder and started walking. "This way."

About fourty five minutes in Ghoul stirred. He was aware of the rocking back and forth and the amount of blood rushed to the head from being upside down for almost an hour.  
"Ugghh." He groaned. "Poison, Poison I'm up."  
Poison noticed and helped him to his feet.  
"Are you alright?"   
"Yeah." He replied quietly not taking his steadying hand. Poison went to help Jet carry Kobra. 

"Catch!" He chucked Ghoul the GPS and lifted Kobra's arm over his shoulder. Continuing the journey back to the TransAm.

The sun had set behind the sand dunes by the time they reached the car. It was luckily unaided and still intact. 

"Get in. We can reach Batt city by tomorrow." Poison went towards the drivers seat. Jet held out an arm to stop him.  
"Jet." He said, almost pleading. "We have to save her. Let me go!"   
"Poison stop and think for a second!" He told him. "What do you think we can do!? If we try catch up to Korse we'll run out of gas before we even get out of Zone 5."   
"So what we're just going to let them take her? Do you even care Jet? You don't even know what BLI is capable of!"  
"Poison of course I fucking care. I love her as much as you do, we all do." Neither of them had seen Jet this angry before. It was pretty terrifying. "BLI destroyed everything I'd ever known. I've lost more than you ever have. Don't ever tell me I don't know what they do."   
Poison looked desperately at Ghoul.  
"He's right." Ghoul sighed. "I know more than any of you what they'll do. And believe me I wouldn't want anyone to go through that, let alone Babyjoy, but what can we do? Right now we wouldn't stand a chance." He went towards the passenger seat. "Jet can drive."

Hours of silent driving passed. No headlights or radio. The only sound was the occasional instruction from Ghoul to Jet regarding navigation. Kobra was still unconscious. Poison had his hand pressed against his stomach so he wouldn't bleed out. The bruising on his hands was worrying. Without an X-ray machine he wouldn't know for sure but there was a high chance that his knuckles were broken.

Poison took Kobra's slowly dropping pulse and silently prayed he would make it.

"What zone are we in?" He asked.  
"Just entered Zone 3." Ghoul said. They got back onto the road four hours earlier, having to stop to unclog the wheels a few times. Now they steadily drove at the crushingly slow pace of 25 miles per hour so they could save fuel. 

"The diner!" Jet's voice jolted Ghoul awake. His spirits instantly lifted.  
"What's up?" Poison groggily mumbled.  
"We're back." Ghoul said. Poison sighed in relief just as the engine gave a final sputter and stopped dead 15 yards away from the diner. 

Not bothering to grab supplies, Poison lifted Kobra out of the car in an unbalanced bridal style and ran inside as the others followed. 

The ray gun pressed into his skull. Poison froze. This moment only lasted briefly before the gun was lowered.   
"Shit you guys are ok." Show Pony exclaimed. "I'm sorry I thought you were a Drac for a sec."   
"Glad to see you're alright." Poison replied. "You need to help me. Kobra got shot in the stomach, he's lost a lot of blood." He said.  
"Of course. Bring him here." They motioned.

After they removed Kobra's jacket and shirt Poison and Show Pony got to work fixing the wound.   
"He's lucky, there's no organ damage." Show Pony said. "Do you have a cigarette lighter?" Poison nodded, passing them the lighter from his pocket. Show Pony cauterized the wound and finished stitching it.   
"He's gonna live Poison." They told him as he finished bandaging. A huge weight lifted off his shoulders. His brother would survive.

Poison was helping Ghoul stitch the cut on his cheek when Jet came in.  
"Guys?" Jet said, turning everyone's attention towards him. "I didn't want to worry you while we were driving, but I can't see out of my left eye."   
"What?" Ghoul was in disbelief. "The fuck."   
"Why didn't you say anything?" Poison shook his head.   
"I just wanted everyone to get back alive." Jet replied.  
"Well you failed Jet. We lost Motorbaby."   
Jet knew Poison didn't mean this malicious talk, still it hurt.  
"What's happened has happened, we can't change the past. And I promise, as soon as we can we're going straight in there and we're getting her back." 

Poisons expression slowly morphed from a glare to slowly breaking down in tears.  
"I'm sorry Jet. I failed." He muttered. "I failed Motorbaby and Kobra, Dr. Death Defying even. I feel like I've let down everyone at this point. We're supposedly the leaders of this fight and yet the moment we're faced with anything serious we lose everything." Poison shuddered. "I don't know what to do anymore." 

Jet hesitated for a second before kneeling down next to him.   
"Poison. I know things look bleak, but we're fucking Killjoys, and this fight isn't over. She's still alive, we're still alive." He took the wrist of Poison's hand he was trying to hide.  
"Your hand's broken." Poison shook his head in response.  
"It isn't."   
"It's pretty obvious."  
"Can't prove it. We don't have X-ray."  
Jet lightly poked one of the bruised spots. Poison tried not flinch or make any sign of discomfort but still a small cry of pain escaped through his gritted teeth.   
"Anything else?" Jet asked, even though he'd seen the holes in his jacket.   
Admitting defeat, Poison unzipped his jacket and exposed the shoulder where he'd used his bandana as a tourniquet over rather deep ray gun wounds.  
"Holy shit." Jet mumbled. "Sit down." He ordered, getting to work on his hand while Ghoul fixed his shoulder.  
"Guys it's really not that bad."   
"I know you're usually the leader around here but you've talked enough, so shut up." Ghoul said to him.  
"Fuck off." He replied. Ghoul lightly jabbed him with the needle. Poison did as he was told after that.

 

Once everyone had settled down. Ghoul went to check on Pansy. He walked into the other room and found it on the floor next to the bunk where he had left it.   
Peppered with bullet holes.  
Tears of both sadness and rage streamed down his face. The saltiness of the tears stung where his cheek had been cut open but at this point he didn't care. 

Jet went to see what the various crashes and bangs was about. Sliding open the door he found Ghoul crumpled on the floor sobbing violently and clutching what was left of Pansy to his chest.   
Ignoring the various pieces of everything he'd broken strewn around. He went and sat next to him.  
"Do you want to talk?" He asked. Ghoul shook his head. Jet stayed and silently sat with him until he fell asleep.


	14. 10 The Only Hope for me is You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ______________________________________
> 
> Yo Hi. I decided to wait to post this on March 22nd. So y'all could have something to add to your 38 tonnes of MCR content.

No one had slept despite Show Pony's begging. Usually this would call for a bet between Cherri Cola and Dr. Death Defying to see who passed out from exhaustion first. This time, Show Pony had given up trying to get them to rest and now focused on reconnecting the radio to contact Dr. Death Defying. 

Outside where the tool shed was where they found Ghoul sitting at the workbench. They guessed he had been trying to fix Pansy. Though he must've stopped hours ago. 

Show Pony opened their mouth to say something, Ghoul raised a hand to stop him.  
"I was going to ask if you were done with the pliers?" They said. Ghoul silently handed him the pliers and quickly turned away again. Not before Show Pony saw he'd been crying. Taking the hint though, they walked out. 

Jet Star's way of coping was to go around cleaning everything. He preferred it to thinking. His hand went straight to his gun holster when Show Pony came in.  
Some minimal gestures of hello were expressed and Show Pony went to work on the radio. 

Rain started to fall again. Party Poison  kicked a bucket over to the leaky spot in the roof to catch the water and went back to his journaling. He had tried drawing to take his mind off things but found it reminded him of the girl too much. So he just sat there mostly making random pen strokes on the page.  
Any other time the rain would've been a welcomed occasion. But this would mean they'd have to wait longer as not to get the tires clogged with sand. 

"Dr. Death Defying?" Show Pony almost yelled into the microphone as the radio line opened.  
"Show Pony! I'm online." He replied through the static. "I'm on my way back. We have a lot to discuss, can't do it over radio. See you then."

Something had shifted. A constant drip drummed into his head. 'Does this mean? We made it?'  
He jolted awake. 

Kobra Kid lay on one of the bunks. To his relief he was back in the diner. He looked around and noticed his shirt had been removed and his stomach was bandaged. Poison was asleep across the room sitting on the one chair they had there.  
'"The Drac fight." He mumbled to himself.  
He tried to sit up. Only the pain from his wounds was enough to make him throw up and nearly fall off the bunk. In this commotion Poison heard the racket and woke up. Running over just in time to save Kobra falling onto the floor.

"Shit man." He said to his brother with the slightest hint of a smile. With that he was already hugging him.  
"How long's it been?" Kobra asked within the embrace.  
"Only two days I think." Poison finally let him go. "Feels like eleven years though."  
"At least we all got back."  
"Oh God. You don't know." Poison didn't want to spoil the mood. "They took her."  
Kobra's spirits instantly smashed to smithereens.  
"Shit. They have Motorbaby?" He was in disbelief. "Is she still alive?" His jaw was quivering.  
"We hope so." Poison replied. "As soon as we can we're going in to get her. We just have to wait until it stops raining." 

Kobra leaned back and just sat in silence for a while.  
"Come on you must be starving." Poison clasped his shoulder. "I made you a new shirt. Your old one was kinda ruined." He handed him a singlet not too dissimilar to his old yellow shirt. It was dark yellow with the same black tiger stripes.  
"Oh, and your other stuff is other there." He pointed to a box in the corner. Kobra took his jacket and boots out and went out of the room.

The moment he stepped into the main room. Jet was hugging him.  
"Thank fucking Destroya." He said. "You're ok."  
"Hey Jet." Kobra mumbled in reply. "You're choking me."  
"Oh right sorry." He released his grip.

"Where's Ghoul?"  
"He's in the tool shed." Jet replied. "I wouldn't expect much from him though. He hasn't been great since we got back."  
"I'm going to see him." Kobra grabbed an extra coffee and walked out. 

He walked as quickly as possible through the rain. Trying not to spill the coffee. He burst through the door of the shed just as Ghoul was about to throw another screwdriver at the wall. Kobra grabbed his wrist before he could throw anything. Ghoul fought against his grip. Trying to hurl the screwdriver to all the other tools that left dents in the wall.  
Kobra managed to pry it out of Ghoul's hand. He almost looked like he was going to punch him in the the face. But he threw his hands around Kobra instead. He sympathized and did the same back.  
"Fuck!" He let out a muffled scream into his shoulder. "I miss her so much." He said. "Everyone else seems to be able to handle it. I can't seem to calm the fuck down and be logical. I want to get her back. I don't care if I die in the process. I need to see her again! God fucking dammit Kobra."  
"Ghoul." Kobra said. "Ghoul, sit down. I brought you coffee. Talk to me."

"Thanks for this." Ghoul said after about an hour. "I missed you." A smile appearing on his face for the first time in three days.  
"Do you want me to help you fix Pansy?"  
"I've been trying for days. It's a lost cause. Maybe I'll try again once we get Babyjoy back." 

The sound of a car pulling up caused curiosity for Kobra and Ghoul. They peered over to take a look.  
"Hey! Dr. D's back!" They went inside.

"Death Defying!" Poison exclaimed as the infamous radio host drove his motorized wheelchair into the diner.  
Kobra and Ghoul followed soon after. 

"I'm afraid we don't have time for grand reunions right now children. Sit down we have a lot to talk about."  
Slightly surprised by this revelation. They found places to sit around the room. 

"Cherri went offline not long after you left. I assume he chased the Dracs back to Battery city. We don't know his whereabouts or whether he's still alive." He said. Worried silence ensued. "As for the girl, Jennifer. Better Living know something we don't about her. We need to get her out of the city."  
"We're getting her back." Poison immediately said in response.  
"Steady on Crash Queen." Dr. Death told him. "She'll be in the middle of the city, in BLI Headquarters. The chances of getting out alive are second to none."  
"So what!?" Ghoul said. "It's Babyjoy we're talking about and I'd do anything so she could be safe."  
"Ghoul you're 15." Show Pony noted.  
"She's 5 fucking years old."  
"Guys!" Jet stopped the tension.  
"Raise your hand if you're willing to do this." Poison said in the silence. "If you're not then we'llgo without you."  
Ghoul's hand shot up almost immediately. Followed by Jet, Kobra and Show Pony. Soon all hands were raised.  
"So it's settled." Poison said quietly.

"So the plan." Dr. Death Defying began. "You four will go in to get her. Your car can go faster and getting in should be easy. Me, Show Pony and Hot Chimp will go in the van to look for Cherri and we'll come get you half an hour after you get into the Headquarters. The van has more protection." 

After careful consideration, Poison spoke.  
"We'll have to abandon the TransAm won't we?" Dr. Death nodded.  
"The car is nothing compared to the girl."  
"Yeah." Poison agreed. "We'll have to strip it of anything we can be tracked through."  
"We need the radio though." Kobra added. He was right.  
"We'll just set it up so we can shut it off before we leave the car in Batt city." Ghoul said, solving the problem.

"Are we ready?" Show Pony aled the room. "We're leaving in a few days." They let out a sigh. "Let's do this."


	15. 11 Sing it for the world

A cold chill brushed up their skin as the TransAm entered the tunnel. Eerie blue lights bounced around the corrugated iron tube as the car sped through to the city centre. 

The previous night, they finished scrapping the radio parts and set up a fire a few sand dunes away from the diner.   
"Last chance to step out," Party Poison said, waiting for a few seconds before continuing. "Right we're getting up before sunrise so we'll get to the city by nightfall."   
"I know the quickest way to the BLI Headquarters," Fun Ghoul added. "I'll navigate."   
Poison nodded. "Right. We'll need to get in and out as quickly as possible. But we need to face the possibility that we might not get out."   
His words were met with silence.  
"Also Jet, I managed to find you an eyepatch." He passed it over to Jet Star, who put it on and arranged it around his slightly overgrown afro.   
"Thanks."   
"Food's done," Kobra Kid looked up from the fire.  
"Are you finally gonna reveal what it is?" Poison teased. "Or is it just flavoured vulture shit?"   
"Well... I found some real meat. I think."   
"Holy shit that's fucking great!" Ghoul said rather loudly. "We haven't had real meat since, well, forever."   
"Well I'm sorry to say it's probably shit but you made me cook so?" Kobra handed everyone a few small pieces of overcooked steak. 

Between mouthfuls of burnt meat, Jet suddenly blurted out. "My name is Ray. Thought you should know. Just in case we don't make it out. "   
"I'm Mikey." Kobra mumbled.  
"Frank." Ghoul said through mouthfuls of food.   
"Gerard." Poison said. "Thanks for telling us."

Now they sat in the car silent with completely stone cold expressions reflecting off the advertisements being projected onto the wall.  
Poison gripped the steering wheel with the same freezing determination on his face as he had when they left 16 hours earlier. 

A security booth sat next to the barricade blocking the exit of the tunnel.  
"What do we do?" Kobra asked, unsure of their next move. Poison didn't reply but instead floored the accelerator and smashed through the barricade at 90 mph. Behind them the Scarecrows at the security booth had sounded the alarm. 

"Load your guns," Poison told them, Jet passed ammunition around. Soon after they stopped in front of the bridge.   
"Ready?" Jet asked. The air of determination confirmed it.  
"Let's go." Poison said.

They followed Poison across the bridge. Shooting down the Scarecrows guarding the headquarters. After taking down the enemy guns, the Killjoys stormed the building sporting the sinister smiley Better Living Industries logo. 

Poison wrenched the door open and continued firing at the large number of Draculoids and Scarecrows crowding the building lobby. Once the path was clear, Poison beckoned them over to the stairs.

Three floors up they found the offices. Poison led the way off the directions that Ghoul gave them. Slamming open the doors at the end of the hall. The girl sat on the ground playing with a blue medicine ball. Poison's lip quivered slightly as he knelt down and hugged her tightly. He was sure she could feel his fear in his uneven breathing. He stayed with his arms around her while the others shot down the Dracs guarding the room.

Ghoul stood up after hugging the girl himself. "Time to get out of here."   
"I agree. We need to go," Jet said.  
"Yeah," Kobra agreed.  
"Come on Babyjoy," Ghoul took the girl's hand and left the room. 

Many hallways and stairs later, they reached the main lobby on the ground floor. It was empty. The Killjoys stood confused in the uneasy silence. Then out of nowhere the room swarmed with Dracs, followed by the Scarecrows.   
They flicked off the safety of their ray guns and worked to clear away the threat. 

Poison gripped the hair of a Drac mask and ripped it off its head. Underneath the mask was the face of a man who now lay dead on the ground. Poison started hyperventilating, his breath coming quicker as the guilt rose in his throat.   
"What the fuck are you doing? Poison!" He heard Ghoul yell at him, though it sounded fuzzy and slurred.

Something grabbed at his jacket. Poison looked up at the sinister grin worn by Korse. The back of his head stung as he was shoved against a wall. Korse still held him by the neck. He pressed his stark white ray gun up to his throat. Instead of panicking further he noticed his heart rate slow and his breathing steady.   
Korse's smile twisted further along the twisting of his ray gun.  
He mouthed "Run," In a whisper in response to the horror on the girl and Kobra's face.

The smell of burning flesh came before the brief pain and taste of blood in his mouth. In his quickly blurring vision he saw Korse pull his gun away and a red flash he recognized as his brother by his scream. All of this passed in the span of a few seconds.   
Then everything fell away.

Kobra saw Poison being pinned against the wall. Horror and pure dread filled him. He wanted to yell, scream at him to fight back, but the words were stuck. So instead he watched his strangely calm response.

'Oh god,' Kobra thought to himself. 'He's going to die. He's really about to di-'   
His thought had barely processed before the flash of light shot out the tip of the ray gun. Time passed in slow motion. The light slowly faded from his eyes. Poison slid down the wall and slumped down to the floor.  
Kobra felt the scream escape his lips. Tears filled his eyes. It seemed so hard not to deny reality, that his own brother was dead. It seemed impossible. 

Despair quickly spread to rage and something inside him clicked. Kobra reached for his gun holster, drawing the ray gun. He shot at every white-clad soldier in his tear blurred vision. Rage made his shots sloppy and most of shots missed. All coming to a head when two shots hit his shoulder and spine. His ray gun skidded across the ground as he crumpled to the floor.

Ghoul grabbed the girl by the arm and dashed to the doors with Jet. After the other two made it through, Ghoul grabbed the door handle.  
"I love you Babyjoy." He said quickly before shutting himself in, turning to face the shots being fired at him. 

Ghoul pulled the trigger as fast as his fingers would allow. Keeping the shots as coming as a bullet hit his hand and shoulder. Still firing when the bullets shot though his chest and he too fell.

Jet ran from the building back out to the car, nearly across the bridge by the time the door burst open. Jet continued, running backwards while shooting till he was gunned down.  
He fell back, strewn across the hood of the TransAm.

The girl started to run. Followed by the BLI soliders.  
A battered white van pulled up and the door slid open. Show Pony jumped out to bus some time in getting her safe. The girl ran towards the familiar faces. Dr. Death Defying reached out, pulling her into the van. 

"Death Defying. We have to save them" Jet's right over there. The others are still inside."   
"Sorry Crash Queen. There's nothing we can do. They're already dead," he said in almost a whisper. Show Pony clambered back into the van. Slamming the door shut.  
"Hot Chimp, drive." He ordered. 

The girl watched them drive way from the Headquarters. Knowing she would never again see the Fabulous Four and the TransAm. She clung to Show Pony, shuddering as the tears stung her cheeks. Even beneath their helmet Show Pony was crying too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not quite the end yet


	16. The Parade

"Miss me!" The words blurted out of his mouth.   
Party Poison sat up, aware of his lack of breath and heartbeat. He didn't have his jacket. 

Sensing something behind him, he swung around, facing the black feathered being standing behind him. Poison freaked out and reached for his ray gun. The holster was empty. 

"You're the Phoenix Witch," He said as he calmed himself down.  
"It appears so," She replied.   
"Where are the others? We need to help Motorbaby. BLI took her."   
"They will come. But you can't help them Poison. We can only watch."

The strange emptiness in the void opened slightly. Through the haze Poison watched the fight play out in the BLI Headquarters.   
The Draculoid shot down Kobra Kid. Poison shrieked and fell to his knees, clawing at the viewpoint into the other world.  
"Kobra!" He screamed into the void. "Mikey!" Still trying to get through. Another yell escaped his throat as Frank and Ray were gunned down. 

The Phoenix Witch reached out a spindly bandaged arm and pulled him upright.  
"I promise you will see them again. The girl is safe."   
She led him away from the void to what looked like a dark old house.   
"Party Poison has succeeded in what he needed to do. His time is done." The Phoenix Witch gently pushed him through the door.   
"What now then?" He asked.  
"You will lead the Parade. Forget the other world. It has a savior now. The others will come." 

After the door slammed shut and disappeared, Gerard approached the small fountain near the window. He dipped his hands in the slightly murky water, splashing it over his face. As the water ran down his chin, he looked in the mirror and saw the ray gun wound had faded and vanished. Confused, he got more water and splashed his face again then staring back into the mirror. The hollows in his cheeks filled out. He looked healthier despite being dead. Curiosity got the better of him. He ran his water covered hands through his hair, surprisingly calm as his messy crimson hair fell away into a short platinum buzz cut.

Gerard looked down and noticed he now wore all black military clothes. He paused then did up his jacket. 

He turned from the mirror and Mikey stood at the other side of the room. Filled with joy, he quickly ran over. As he got closer Mikey's Killjoy attire faded to the same black clothing and his hair was now short and dark.

"I fucking missed you," Gerard said as he wrapped his arms around Mikey.   
"Same," he replied shakily. "It's been forever." 

Ray appeared with the same darker clothes and shorter hair. Frank came soon after.   
"I'm so glad you're here," Gerard told Ray and then went to see Frank.  
"Did you notice the door?" Frank asked him.   
"It just appeared now." He replied.   
"So I guess you didn't see it."   
"Are you questioning my intelligence Frankie?"   
"I'm always questioning."  
"Fucker."

"Let's go guys." Gerard led them out the door.   
No one felt cold despite the snow. They kept walking towards the parade heading their way.   
Once they met they stepped onto the float. One by one they grabbed the instruments. Gerard gripped the microphone stand. Soft piano played out in the distance. A woman in a hoop skirt and gas mask walked out in front of the float.  
"Welcome to the Black Parade."


	17. Last radio

*Transmission received.....1:09pm*

*Alright Children. The lights are out and the fight is over.

The Fabulous Four were ghosted in The Better Living Headquarters, all but three nights have passed since.  
Considered by many the leaders of the Killjoys. We can't mourn, they're coming.  
Keep your guns close and die with your mask on if you've got to. Prepare for the attacks to come.

Three nights ago we lost Party Poison, Jet Star, Kobra Kid and Fun Ghoul. Cherri Cola went missing a few days prior and we don't know of his whereabouts.  
While I can't say who they were protecting in case they're listening, their mission was ultimately successful despite their deaths.

Listen Tumbleweeds, Better Living Industries is ruthless, take care and stay away from the city. It certainly ain't looking up. The party's over.

It's time for me, Dr. D, to start running and say goodbye for a little while.  
And I know you're going to miss me, so I'll leave you with this.

You know that big ball of radiation we call the sun? Well it'll burst you into flames if you stay in one place too long.   
So remember, even if you're dusted, you may be gone. But out here in the desert your shadow lives on without you.

This is Dr. Death Defying, signing off.*

*Transmission terminated*


	18. Pigeon letters

Dear Dr. Death Defying.

I have no idea where you are these days or how long this letter will take to find you, so I'll leave the date of writing this letter.  
9/9/2021

It's been over two years since we lost The Fab Four and we said our goodbyes.   
I scavenged the diner for supplies and found some of their possessions. DJ Hot Chimp and I tried to fix Pansy for Ghoul. I doubt it'll work again but it's been re-strung. We left their stuff hidden in the diner. 

Show Pony went to Zone 2 for a few days to get their bodies. Poison and Jet had arranged with them to be their Death Possessor and find their bodies. True to this role they kept it all confidential. But they let us take part in doing the graffiti on their gravestones.

We took their masks and left them in the Phoenix Witch's letterbox on our way to find a new hideout out in the desert. 

I lived with Hot Chimp and Show Pony for almost a year without much trouble.   
Show Pony was ghosted in a clap during a Drac ambush a few months back. Hot Chimp disappeared soon after. I hope she's still out there.   
I found new companionship in a cat that came into a shelter I was staying at. I have yet to find a name for him.

I wish the Killjoys were as carefree as they once were. Fear and paranoia have kept a lot of them away. The Zones are emptier now. 

I have some supplies and a few Carbons on me. So I'm surviving, for now.

I hope you come back to the radio one day, the lines are dead and all there is is static. The Zones need you. 

It might be months or even years by the time this reaches you. Pigeon Mail is unreliable at best. So I'll leave with a hint of inspiration.

Look alive sunshine.


End file.
